the root of all evil and This American Life

We knew the loan industry was experiencing some weirdness when we had our car loan rejected by three banks. At first, I was scared out of my mind. Had my credit been hacked? Was my identity now the possession of a computer saavy 13 years old in the United Arab Emirates? A quick check and it turns out that I am one of the few Americans who can claim a near faultless credit score. So what was up?

I know now that the housing market was imploding and the sub-prime lending industry had basically bottomed out. I have to say, keeping up with financial news like this is not my favorite part of social justice work. I am basically a theoretical socialist who benefits from the capitalist system. I am the worst of all things. Ignoring economic realities is a major part of keeping people like me naive and happy.

This is why I was so pleased to find out that this week’s This American Life explains in detail the sub-prime mortgage crisis. They start at the top with the international money pool and take you all the way down to the homeowners who lost everything. It is a truly remarkable and eye-opening hour. It’s also suprisingly entertaining.

I always have a difficult time convincing my students that being in the know about economic and political realities like these is the most important aspect of understanding systemic injustices of racism and poverty. There is nothing less sexy than the Farm Bill and getting my students to pay attention to this massively important piece of legislation was difficult. Getting them to think about the impacts of mortgage economy on the world’s poorest - yeah right.

But it is important and I’m going to keep pushing. This is because I believe in original sin and that there is no place to tap into the root of evil in our world than to observe the ethics behind our world-wide lending scheme. The TAL program is particularly helpful in pointing the finger at greed, good old fashioned greed.