Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream [9780062869548]

Overview

“[I] can’t recommend this joint enough. ... An illuminating and discomfiting read.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates 

"Essential reading." —New York Review of Books

A shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class—among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.

Two years before the housing market collapsed in 2008, Donald Trump looked forward to a crash: “I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy,” he said. But our future president wasn’t alone. While millions of Americans suffered financial loss, tycoons pounced to heartlessly seize thousands of homes—their profiteering made even easier because, as prize-winning investigative reporter Aaron Glantz reveals in Homewreckers, they often used taxpayer money—and the Obama administration’s promise to cover their losses.

In Homewreckers, Glantz recounts the transformation of straightforward lending into a morass of slivered and combined mortgage “products” that could be bought and sold, accompanied by a shift in priorities and a loosening of regulations and laws that made it good business to lend money to those who wouldn’t be able to repay. Among the men who laughed their way to the bank: Trump cabinet members Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, Trump pal and confidant Tom Barrack, and billionaire Republican cash cow Steve Schwarzman. Homewreckers also brilliantly weaves together the stories of those most ravaged by the housing crisis. The result is an eye-opening expose of the greed that decimated millions and enriched a gluttonous few.

This gripping exposé from a Pulitzer Prize finalist reveals:

• The Wall Street Playbook: How a handful of billionaires, including Trump cabinet members Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, foresaw the 2008 crash and positioned themselves to profit from it.
• The Foreclosure Machine: The inside story of how these tycoons used taxpayer bailouts and government guarantees to seize thousands of homes from the working and middle class.
• The Rise of Corporate Landlords: The birth of a new business model that transformed the American Dream of homeownership into a nightmare of predatory renting for millions of families.
• The Racial Wealth Gap: A damning investigation into how predatory lending and targeted foreclosures systematically stripped wealth from communities of color.
• From Housing Bust to the White House: The definitive link between the men who wrecked the economy and their rise to power in Donald Trump’s Washington.