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-- 13 June 2007 -- |
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We are trying to get organizations to hold screenings, sponsor house parties and otherwise promote the film.
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DISSECTOR DEBT BLOG In Debt We Trust director Danny Schechter reports on the film and campaign. The other day I saw Oceans 13, the third film in the saga of a crew of slick robbers who often target gambling casinos. The audience cheered when the gaming parlor was itself gamed. Gambling is something that Americans and people the world over know about. It's one of those institutions we hate and yet are seduced by. Everyone wants to be a winner but most people know the house always wins. And sometimes you may be a big loser in more senses than one. Take the case of one real life Soprano-like Mafioso, Robert DeCicco, whose father is a captain with the Gambino crime family, and who was, reports the NY Times, shot in his arm and leg this week, as he was sitting in his parked car. A bullet grazed his head. His apparent problem: lots of unpaid gambling debts. A few days later, a man once known as “the Cueball, ” Rudolph Izzi, a reputed soldier in the Genovese family, was found dead in his bed. Mr. Izzi was a loan shark of the kind former prosecutor Lou Cherico talks about in my documentary IN DEBT WE TRUST. The police found a trove of loan-sharking records in his homes. In New York, possession of loan-sharking records is only a misdemeanor. That is, until you cross the Mafia and get their death penalty. In fact, many lenders in America operate like loan sharks, only worse. There are no serious investigations into, or laws against, their practices. Here’s one that surfaced this past week when hedge fund managers accused the investment firm Bear Sterns of manipulating the market---and trying to revive subprime loans, a pernicious practice also exposed in IN DEBT WE TRUST. (See our foreclosure video). Put this statistic on the wall: 1 out of every 751 households are in foreclosure. The Wall Street Journal reported:
So far, two million Americans face foreclosure and no predatory lenders have gone to jail. That’s why we need a movement like AMERICANS FOR DEBT RELIEF NOW (www.StopTheSqueeze.org) to push for badly needed regulations and consumer protections. This is not just an American problem—in fact, in many parts of the world, America IS the problem by forcing poor countries to take on massive debts which they cannot pay and hence must do Washington’s bidding. I heard a talk about this problem this week by John Perkins (author of the best seller “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” and the new “The Secret History of the American Empire.”) He explained how debt is used to impoverish the Third World and a weapon of influence. THE VIEW IN SOUTH AFRICA I also spoke about the issue with a
reporter for South Africa’s Mail & Guardian who was interviewing me
about my forthcoming visit to the Durban International Film Festival
in late June to show IN DEBT WE TRUST. We spoke about how credit and
debt is very much a problem there too. The country’s Finance Minister Trevor Manuel says it is
difficult to advise South African consumers against spending on
credit.
Did you read that last sentence? Here
it is again: “We seem to be teetering on the brink of more financial
disasters." A publication called Market Oracle agrees in a story
called “Global Liquidity Crisis when the Credit Boom comes to an
End.”
* * * The question of the week is what it was last week: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS CRISIS? ARE WE READY TO ACT? Give us some feedback, and send in news items you think others should know about. We are also looking for some donors to support our not-for-profit outreach and educational campaign with tax deductible donations to:
If you have comments or suggestions, share them with me at dissector@mediachannel.org. Danny Schechter |
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SPONSORED ARTICLE HOUSING BUBBLE STILL BURSTING Parts of the Housing market are still in free fall. This article is from Florida. If you want some perspective on this, check out this YouTube video on housing in the depression, and how government action made a difference. YouTube carries some comments too, like these: "An amazing historic gem! Thanks so much to whoever found and posted this. The question is: will history repeat if credit is to contract in a modern day recession?" "There are millions of Californians who have been living off of their home equity, and they will soon be homeless and need soup kitchens and employment programs to survive." One interesting thing to note as that
the new model home in the video costs only the equivalent of $96,000
in today's inflation adjusted dollars. That just goes to show you
how overpriced real estate is today by comparison. Of course those
houses were much smaller than today's homes - but perfectly
adequate. Today everyone wants an inefficient oversized behemoth of
a house that they can barely afford (or in the case of creative
financing, that they cannot afford). And again this is a worldwide phenomenon as a result of the GLOBALIZATION of Financialization. In England, there was this report: "Britons now spend 15 per cent of their annual salary in making purchases on their credit card, it has been revealed. New figures from life assistance company CPP found that this figure amounts to £150,000 over the course of a lifetime, with the average card." And finally, also from Britain but
also so relevant here—the reasons why I hope
IN DEBT WE TRUST
will be widely seen: |
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