A year ago, I started making a film about the debt crunch in America. I subtitled it “America Before The Bubble Bursts.” It deals in part with predatory lending practices. Sub prime lending by big financial institutions and the growing number of foreclosures. The film In Debt We Trust was well received but one negative reviewer in the San Francisco Chronicle faulted it for what it didn’t and couldn’t do—explain what
will happen when the burble bursts. I responded, to no avail, that I was a filmmaker, not a fortune teller.

Last week, we got the first taste of what IS already happening. In pary because of this crunch,  stock market went into free fall, with the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve predicting a recession. (Predictably, the
good news bears at Fox News ran a segment titled “Should Alan Greenspan Just Shut Up?)

A few weeks back, one of the big banks exposed in my film,  HSBC, which refused an on camera interview went into a tail spin when its sub prime lending loans to people without the means to pay back—imploded and turned into a massive loss.

Credit Card Nation author Robert Manning wrot me to say: “This is just the beginning as mortgage resets on the middle class will start the next wave as the housing values fall and they can not cash out.  And with the Wall Street heavyweights involved, the stock market for financial services has a very rough road ahead!”

Most of the press which has been bostering the economy and looking the other way is finally tuning in as the government starts probing the big fish. On Saturday, the NY Times reported:

Federal prosecutors and securities regulators are
investigating stock sales and accounting errors at the New Century Financial Corporation, the biggest mortgage company that specializes in lending to people with weak, or subprime, credit, the company disclosed in a corporate filing yesterday.

 
On Sunday, the paper’s business analyst Gretchen Morgenson was comparing this emerging scandal to ENRON.

Mortgages May Be Messier Than You Think

WHAT investors don’t know about why the home mortgage securities market is in distress could fill volumes. As is often the case, only after fiery markets burn out do we see the risks that buyers ignore and sellers play down.

Because so many players in this world have an interest in keeping risks under wraps, a complete understanding of the mortgage market’s ills may take time. Unlike recent corporate disasters that have occurred at hyperspeed — think Enron and WorldCom — the mortgage securities boom seems to be unwinding in slow motion. But trains wrecks are train wrecks, even when they occur at a crawl.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/business/yourmoney/04gret.html?ref=business

Behind all this business rhetoric is one word: PAIN. Pain for Americans who are losing their homes or face rising mortgage costs. We are talking about a lot of people who can barely pay their loans today and live with a credit noose around their necks.

What are we going to do about this? What can we do?The progressive movement is mostly silent. We need a campaign on these issues and Bob Manning and I and others are starting one. We are calling it AMERICANS FOR DEBT RELIEF NOW.

The first stage of this effort to promote awareness across partisan, racial and socio-economic lines.  We are launching a new website this week called STOP THE SQUEEZE.ORG. Sign Up. We are hoping to set up screenings and house parties for IN DEBT WE TRUST to start informing a country strangling in debt why this is happening and what we can do about it.

InDebtWeTrust.com is the film website.

This issue is about the financialization by big banks that is robbing money from our pockets and communities. It is about student loans, credit card abuses, a lack of bankruptcy protection, redlining, pay day lenders, income tax preparation scams and much more.

Ultimately, this issue is about Economic Justice and survival.

Will you join us in this campaign? It’s easy to do. For more information, write to SBKayser@globalvision.org Signup at Stopthesqueeze.com