Kucinich to Hold Hearing Over Foreclosures Today,Blames Fed

[Algorem]

http://www.wcpn.org/news/2007/04-06/0521kucinich.html

Aired May 21, 2007

Congressman Dennis Kucinich will be taking the Federal Reserve of Cleveland to task today for the soaring number of foreclosures in the city. ideastream's Bill Rice reports.

Listen to the MP3- http://www.wcpn.org/mp3/2007/05/0521kucinich.mp3

Kucinich will hold a hearing in downtown Cleveland to gather information that he hopes will lead to greater federal oversight of lending practices. The congressman led a walking tour Sunday of the east side neighborhood of Slavic Village, where single blocks are home to as many as a dozen boarded up and condemned homes. Kucinich blames the blight on predatory lending practices that have been allowed to flourish.

Dennis Kucinich: It's kind of a racket, and that what we're going to be talking about the role of the fed to monitor these practices. And also where do we go from here.

Kucinich says now that democrats are in charge of Congress, passage of legislation to reign in lending standards has a better chance making it into law. County, bank and Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to testify at today's hearing.

[Missy M]

1. Good for Kucinich.....

it is important to stop the predatory lending practices aimed at low income people.

[madrchsod]

2. racket? organized crime is a better description

the feds busted a boat load of people in the chicago area for sham mortgages, deceptive sub prime loans, and other housing scams. this happened because of no federal regulatory oversight
who is the top federal prosecutor in chicago...
yes it is Fitzgerald and i hope the next democratic president picks him as attorney general.

[Algorem]

3. Kucinich hearing targets Fed over predatory mortgages

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2007/05/kucinich_hearing_targets_fed_o.html

Posted by Teresa Dixon Murray May 21, 2007 16:57PM
Categories: Breaking News

A congressional hearing today on a pending bank merger and the problems of predatory mortgages turned into a verbal beating of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

The hearing, called by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Cleveland Democrat, was attended by more than 100 people, including community representatives, politicians and judges. Kucinich is chairman of the House domestic policy subcommittee under the oversight and government reform committee.

Many of the witnesses during the 2½-hour hearing placed a lot of the blame for this area's mortgage problems on the Federal Reserve.

Kucinich noted that Ohio has the highest foreclosure rate nationwide, and that Cuyahoga County has among the worst rates for foreclosures and delinquencies nationwide. Part of the reason, he said, is that traditional, regulated banks have fled from the inner-city and the gap has been filled by unscrupulous lenders...