Inside the US subprime crisis 01 April 2008
Al Jazeera English
Transcript
my name is aam B Salam and I'm a real estate agent in Northern Virginia and uh my job nowadays is is extremely difficult but I still love it I blame almost everyone for the subprime mess that we are in right now but mostly I blame uh the federal government because they lower the interest rate so low for so long that they made money so cheap and they they encouraged home owners ship that everyone was able to get a loan 100% loan whether they had a job they didn't have a job it's just they gave money to everyone to buy well the lenders did Target the minorities because these minorities most of them are new in America and they didn't understand the system they didn't know and some of them I've seen some of them they don't even speak English they relied on their uh lender who spoke some English or their real estate agent who spoke some English and they all gave them uh the wrong advice because all what they cared about is their commission and getting the loan to cloes they sliced it and diced it and sold it and after that they didn't care what happened it's greedy human beings you know taking advantage of other people it's a sad thing do your best to help people out but there is a limit to what I can do you know I I try to comfort them but it just kills me when I see a husband and wife and uh the wife is telling me her husband can't sleep even at night he's so worried about this thing I disagree with what the government is doing by lowering the interest rate what good is having the interest rate at three or four or 5% if you can't get the money it's like you see heaven but you can't reach heaven it kills you it's like you see it with your own eyes but you can't get to it from talking to other agents who have been doing this for 30 even 40 years some of them they tell me that they've never seen they've never seen it this bad and they all believe that it will be at least 3 4 years before things stabilize for my job right now it's really it's a lot of work but it's it's not a physical work it's an emotional work because you you want to help people out they call this the American dream and now I hear it all the time people calling the American the American Nightmare
Money Minute: Construction Spending; McClatchy
Associated Press
Transcript
AP money minute construction spending fell again in February as Home Building tumbled for a record 24th straight month the Commerce Department reporting that overall construction activity dropped 3/10 of 1% while residential construction fell 9/10 only government building projects showed a gain in February analysts believe that housing will keep falling until a record glut of unsold homes is reduced Sony Pictures Television says it will become the first Hollywood studio to offer fulllength movies by cell phone movies will be made available through AT&T phones beginning in May the ad supported movies will only become part of the service after they've made their theatrical and DVD runs and have been broadcast on TV already AT&T says it's not yet determined pricing on the new service mcache will sharpen its focus on the rapidly growing Hispanic Community by sharing articles and other content with impremedia newspapers impremedia touts its Spanish language news newspapers as an advertising Gold Mine the New York based company estimates that 29.4 million Hispanics living in its Target markets have a combined $478 billion in spending power I'm Mark Hamrick with ap money minute
Dow ends Q1 down 8%; Paulson unveils regulatory overhaul plan
CBS
Transcript
investors will try to turn things around as Wall Street kicks off a new quarter despite a small Rebound in late March the first three months of the year were dismal for stocks the Dow slid about 8% while the NASDAQ plunged 15 stocks did finish higher Monday for the first time in four days that's after treasury secretary Henry Paulson unveiled a White House plan to expand the Federal Reserves power to try to prevent future Financial crises the Dow Jones Industrial Average Rose 46 points the NASDAQ climbed about 18 today investors will be looking for the latest report on construction spending for February Wall Street will also be focused on oil prices crude slid more than $4 to just over $11 a barrel that price drop followed news that a bombed Iraqi oil pipeline was up and running again oil will also be in focus on Capitol Hill Congress is set to grill Executives from the world's biggest oil companies today lawmakers are expected to ask why the industry needs $18 billion in tax breaks some and Congress are looking to repeal those breaks and use the money to subsidize renewable energy projects and truckers are taking action facing mounting diesel costs and shrinking profits truckers Nationwide are reportedly planning to protest this week by parking their trucks or clogging traffic by driving slowly the average price for diesel jumped 16% in the past month to 391 a gallon that's your money watch log on to cbsnews.com for more at the New York Stock Exchange I'm christopherus