In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The
Big Short, 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.