American News Project

ANP HAS MERGED WITH THE HUFFINGTON POST INVESTIGATIVE FUND, http://huffpostfund.org

divory — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:03:41 PDT

The American News Project has recently merged with the new Huffington Post Investigative Fund. Please go to http://huffpostfund.org/ to access our new website!

The Fed Under Fire

lsebert — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:51:54 PDT

The Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful and secretive institutions in Washington, long considered beyond the reach of lawmakers. But now, as details emerge of how the Fed secretly doled out more than a trillion dollars during the financial crisis, a rare bipartisan movement in Congress demands that the Fed be held accountable.

Obama's Auto Task Force: Driven by Wall Street?

mfritz — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:49:03 PDT

The General Motors flameout has been a disaster for blue collar Americans working on assembly lines. Out of 123,000 GM workers left in North America, 20,000 are scheduled to lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, the Auto Task Force appointed by President Obama to oversee the process is led by Wall Street financiers focused on turning a profit and boosting stock prices. It's an approach that has some people worried.

Bankrupt GM Begins Slashing Jobs

dmurdock — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

General Motors has another day in bankruptcy court today -- good news for lawyers.

Quick Take: Kucinich Grills Lewis on Fed Emails

lsebert — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:08:02 PDT

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis took a pounding Thursday from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. One of the most damning exchanges occurred between Lewis and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), when Kucinich exposed Lewis' request for government cover from shareholder lawsuits stemming from BofA's troubled merger with Merrill Lynch

Prior to the merger, according to Kucinich, Lewis requested a letter from New York Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson declaring that the government had ordered him to acquire Merrill's losses. Kucinich presented e-mails from Bernanke and his general counsel contradicting Lewis' own claim that his lawyers didn't think disclosure of Merrill losses to his shareholders before the merger was necessary.

Quick Take: Kucinich Grills Lewis on Fed Emails

lsebert — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:08:02 PDT

Crossposted with the Huffington Post

In huge change, Obama to strip Fed of credit card oversight

dmurdock — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

read more

Quick Take: Kucinich Grills Lewis on Fed Emails

lsebert — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis took a pounding Thursday from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

read more

Debt Collector Harassment: Coming To A Library Near You

lsebert — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:39:17 PDT

Article by Arthur Delaney for The Huffington Post

read more

Road to Ruin: Online Lenders Fight Regulation

lsebert — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:06:11 PDT

Payday loan offices have been sprouting up in strip malls and on street corners across America for years before Wall Street collapsed. In these hard times, more people than ever are using payday loans to keep bill collectors at bay. Quick money (at interest rates of around 500% or more) for people with bad credit has been praised by some as a lifeline for the poor and condemned by others as a money trap exploiting families in crisis. Several states have passed laws limiting interest rates, but there is one marketplace that seems to recognize no borders -- the Internet.

ANP videographer Lagan Sebert has been tracing the many ways Americans have been ringing up record debt. For this story, Sebert first staked out a conference on Capitol Hill where online payday lenders and lobbyists honed their arguments to Congress against reform; then he traveled to a small town near the Virginia-North Carolina border to learn about the experiences of a man who one day googled "bad credit loans" and soon found himself in more trouble than he bargained for.

Click to view the whole story at Huffington Post.