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Thursday, January 31, 2013

A Creepy Student Essay Contest Reflects Wall Street’s War For Young Minds - Richard Eskow

A Creepy Student Essay Contest Reflects Wall Street’s War For Young Minds - Richard Eskow:


A Creepy Student Essay Contest Reflects Wall Street’s War For Young Minds

It may be the creepiest student competition in history, but Foreclosure.Com’s essay contest is trivial compared to what Wall Street’s doing to undermine our educational system and manipulate our values.
The Campaign for a Fair Settlement’s Dan Petegorsky commented on the contest, which led us to its entry requirements: “You’ve been tasked with analyzing two foreclosure properties to determine which one is a better investment,” contestants are told.
Opportunity Knocks … and serves an eviction notice
I began writing about illegal bank foreclosures before Wall Street’s criminal actions in this area were widely known.  Soon I started receiving heartbreaking emails from people who had been illegally foreclosed upon. A single mother said she’d been contemplating suicide. Another victim said “your article was like morphine to the dying.”
“All this time,” the homeowner said, “I blamed myself.”
But one person’s suicidal homeowner is another’s investment opportunity.
“The goal is to maximize profit,” says Foreclosure.com, “whether it is a buy, hold or flip strategy over the short-