By Kelsey Duckett December 30, 2010 The statistics are alarming: Nearly one in every six Cook County foreclosures last year was an apartment building, putting thousands of renters in danger of losing their homes. The hardest-hit areas? The West...
By Becky Yerak December 23, 2010 Bank regulators are getting extra tough about what they believe are onerous overdraft policies, and that’s welcome news to Angela Castro. The Newburyport, Mass., resident says she remembers when banks tried to cover...
Through a series of “secret shopper” investigations, NCRC discovered that many of the top 50 FHA lenders would not offer home loans to borrowers with scores between 580 and 620. A large percentage of people of color fall into...
10 Worst Places to Live (Wallet Pop)—One website takes a look at “unemployment rates, health data, the number of foreclosures, crime statistics, climate and other measures of misery” and comes up with a list of the 10 worst places...
By Mick Dumke December 18, 2010 Edward M. Burke, alderman of the 14th Ward since 1969, is widely regarded as the most powerful member of the Chicago City Council. But as he prepares to run unopposed for an 11th...
• The Dodd-Frank Act, which enacted far-reaching financial reform including the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau • Implementation of credit card reforms under the CARD Act • New overdraft loan consumer protections requiring that consumers “opt...
“Payday Loans, Payday Loans It’s Christmas Time in the city Hear them ring, ring-a-ling Soon there will be bankruptcies!” Advocates from the Monsignor John Egan Campaign for Payday Loan Reform and a real-life Payday Grinch put the traditional holiday...
By Anna Maria Andriotis December 15, 2010 IF THERE’S A bright spot in the recent housing market meltdown, it’s that buyers once priced-out of nice houses or good school districts may now be able to afford their target locales....
Journalist Tim Fernholz, the American Prospect: Bankers in Chicago and elsewhere believe ShoreBank’s failure was less because of its mission and more because of its business practices. The bank tried to accomplish too much, too fast, making expansion a...
In “Plunder,” Schechter makes the case that criminal acts of fraud and deception lay at the root of the financial crisis. The film argues that the scope of the fraud was huge, ranging from dishonest subprime lenders tricking unsophisticated...