The Huffington Post
by: Preeti Vissa

You hardly hear anyone in the media — not to mention any of the presidential candidates — talking about it, but the foreclosure crisis isn’t even halfway over with. And a good portion of what you may have heard or read about it is wrong.

Those are the disturbing conclusions of a report from the Center for Responsible Lending that got far too little attention when it was released in November. It’s worth looking at as we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who recognized that legal equality doesn’t mean much if it isn’t linked to economic opportunity. CRL’s report, “Lost Ground, 2011,” paints a picture of devastation that has disproportionately affected America’s Asian American, Latino and African American communities.

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Los Angeles Daily News
by: Orson Aguilar

The controversy President Barack Obama set off Wednesday when he made a “recess appointment” of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was as predictable as it was beside the point. What the Beltway talking heads missed, as usual, was how important this is for real people.

The pundit class and cable news shouting heads focused, as always, on the sniping between Republicans and Democrats over legal technicalities and the implications for the 2012 campaign.

A shocking number of news stories quoted only politicians and Capitol Hill staffers. Consumers got mostly left on the cutting-room floor.

Those of us who represent vulnerable communities know better. We’ve met the victims of the practices CFPB was created to protect.

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The Sun of Inland Empire and San Bernadino
by Blanca Hernandez and Michelle Romero

Just days after Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 131, known as the California Dream Act, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Hesperia, filed a referendum to overturn the law. If you’re asked to sign a petition to place this measure on the ballot, you might want to think carefully about its implications before you do.

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San Francisco Chronicle
by: Bruce Mirken

CEOs of wealthy Silicon Valley companies and other hugely profitable businesses that have avoided billions in federal taxes by hiding profits in offshore tax havens now want us to reward this tax evasion by cutting their tax rate by more than 85 percent (“Lower the tax on foreign earnings,” Open Forum, Dec. 22).

Really? Is this some sort of sick joke?

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Huffington Post
by: Preeti Vissa

I’m about to become a mom. If all goes as expected, I’ll be bringing a baby boy into the world sometime in the first week of January. To say it’s an overwhelming experience is both completely obvious and a pretty severe understatement.

In practical terms, it probably means I’ll be posting here a bit less often, as I’ll be taking some time off from my work at The Greenlining Institute. But I’ll still be sounding off from time to time — albeit on a schedule dictated by the newest and undoubtedly most vocal member of my family.

And there’s nothing like impending motherhood to get you thinking about what kind of world your child is coming into — and what sort of world you wish for. I don’t think I’m being naïve to hope for a world in which he can pursue his dreams and has a fair shot at going wherever his imagination, talents and dedication can take him.

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California Progress Report
By: Daniel Byrd, Ph.D. and Bruce Mirken

After Barack Obama’s election as president, a number of pundits rushed to declare that America had entered a “post-racial” era, and issues of race could go on the historical scrap heap next to the Cold War and typewriters. They were, it turns out, spectacularly wrong.
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American Banker
By Preeti Vissa

It’s hard to pin down precise numbers, but anecdotal reports in news outlets across the country suggest that hundreds of thousands of Americans responded to “National Transfer Day” campaign by switching their deposits from major banks to credit unions.

But did those consumers accomplish what the campaign’s supporters wanted — to vote with their dollars for institutions with more concern and responsibility for their communities?

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Huffington Post
By Preeti Vissa

Why are top executives at government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac getting millions in bonuses while struggling homeowners get little or no help?

I’ve written before about the need for principal reduction to help homeowners fighting to keep their homes. Not only would this aid millions of Americans caught in difficult circumstances they didn’t create, it would shore up the weak housing market and boost the whole economy. I’m hardly alone: a large collection of financial experts and officials, including California Attorney General Kamala Harris and a large group of members of Congress have called for principal reduction.

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The Progressive
By Orson Aguilar

I wish all Americans could have seen firsthand the amazing crowd at the Occupy Oakland general strike Nov. 2. Contrary to media stereotypes, this was America — young, old, professional, working-class, black, white, Latino, Asian, gay, straight, lawyers, Ph.D.s, people who barely made it through high school, you name it — and they came for a purpose.

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Huffington Post
By Preeti Vissa

Issues that affect our lives don’t happen in a vacuum. Everything affects everything else, and there’s no area where that’s truer than health and access to care. So I’m going to take a slight detour from the financial and economic issues I write about most of the time to say a bit about the Affordable Care Act, which marks a historic expansion of access to health care.

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