Alternative Visions - The Housing Crisis in America—Is it Really Over? - 01/23/13

Dr. Jack Rasmus discusses today ‘The Housing Crisis in America—Is it Really Over’?   Jack examines the data that shows foreclosures haven’t really abated, housing construction is mostly new apartment building to accommodate the 13.7 million who have been foreclosed since 2008, rents are accelerating, and Obama’s housing programs since 2009 have been largely veiled mortgage bank subsidy programs, including the current $10 billion bank mortgage liability deal just concluded.  Jack explains how speculators like hedge funds, private equity firms, and REITS, are buying up foreclosed properties en masse across the country, raising rents, and planning to make big profits from resales the next few years.  Jack then interviews guest, Tom Bias, who tells us what’s really happening on the ground to homeowners and ex-homeowners in New Jersey. The Housing crisis may be over for banks and speculators, but not for the 20 million plus foreclosed or in negative equity.

Jack’s guest is Tom Bias from New Jersey. Tom Bias worked in the printing trades for 40 years before being laid off two years short of retirement age in 2010. He’s been a political activist since the late 1960s in the civil rights, peace, and labor movements, and is currently on the coordinating committee of the Emergency Labor Network and a co-managing editor of the Labor Standard website.