October 2008

by Moshe Adler

Wall Street must be saved for the sake of Main Street, Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke tell us. First, everyone has toxic financial instruments in their 401k's; and second, these instruments are clogging the credit system. But in fact neither claim is true.

The first claim is not true simply because the majority of Americans don't have any retirement accounts at all. And the claim that the credit system is clogged is not true because there is no object that can be removed in order to clear it. What is true is that the securities that Wall Street invented are toxic. But . . .

February 2008

by Tillman Clark

Recently, if you follow any sort of news source, the subject of the economy and its recession is one heard often. A common buzzword heard alongside this topic is that of the “subprime” mortgage crisis. But what exactly is the subprime mortgage crisis? What does subprime mean and why is it so important to the economy and this looming recession that everyone is talking about? Why isn’t the overwhelmingly disastrous effects that it is having on people of color, lower, middle and working class, and American citizens on the front page everyday? Because of the mainstream media’s . . .