News Articles By Mary Bottari

In recent weeks, it has been revealed that the nation’s largest banks have been fraudulently foreclosing on tens, if not hundreds of thousands of families. The big banks financed the predatory mortgage firms that caused the crisis in the first place, an now they are foreclosing on families, the unemployed, the sick, the elderly and even veterans using slipshod foreclosure mills to do their dirty work.

If you are as infuriated as we are call your State Attorney Generals Office today! Click here for a complete list of phone numbers.

On October 3, 2010 the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will end. The expiry is likely to generate many celebratory claims from federal government officials that the bailout is over, and that taxpayers have been made whole or will be made whole in short order.

So the Washington insiders tell us that Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren was named as a "special adviser" to the President in order to dodge a lengthy confirmation battle in the Senate. Rather than nominate her to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on a permanent or even interim basis, Obama instead announced an odd, hybrid appointment where she works for both the White House and U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. In theory, she will have full authority to set up the CFPB, but does not have the title of "Director" that goes with it. Hmmm. She appears to be happy about all this, but it leaves us here at BanksterUSA unsatisfied. This is a temporary appointment. What is she? A Kelly Girl? We are sick of temporary jobs. We prefer permanent things like a title, a salary, benefits, five years guaranteed, and most importantly, power. Already Elizabeth Warren deserves a promotion and in this GRITtv interview, Mary Bottari proposes a new role for America's favorite consumer advocate.

American taxpayers bailed out the big banks. Now many of those banks are returning the favor by extending credit to payday lenders who sucker consumers into a spiraling debt trap.

That is the claim in a new report published this week by National People's Action (NPA), the Chicago-based community organization. The report, called Predators' Creditors, names Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase as some of the biggest lenders to the booming payday loan industry.

"The very same banks that helped tank the economy are now helping the bottom feeders of the industry," says George Goehl, Executive Director of NPA. "The report shows that a $300 payday loan could end up costing you $750. If Al Capone was alive today, I bet you could get a better deal from him."