CNN and the Financial CrisisGroup 6: Katt, LC, Stephen, Shannon

June 5th 2005- Kathleen Hays He [Greenspan] says this froth in the housing market

may have spilled over into the mortgage markets, he's noting a dramatic increase in interest-only loans, and exotic forms of adjustable-rate mortgages that are of particular concern.

So clearly he's worried that in the event of some kind of downturn in the economy, which he does not foresee now, or just individual pockets of weakness, that if people had to start foreclosing on their homes, home prices could fall, feed on itself hurt the economy. He's not forecasting it, he's saying it won't happen, Daryn, but it's clearly something that's on his radar screen."

January 6th 2007 “A sad story. If you can't make your mortgage

payments, there are steps you can take to avoid foreclosure.”

“WILLIS: All right. So let's talk about other steps you can take. You can go to a consumer credit counseling service. FRASCONA: You can. And that's a great place to start. What you really need is a third party to help reflect back on you what the issue is.”

MARK ZANDI, ECONOMY.COM: I think this is going to be the most significant stress in the economy next year. As we see these foreclosures begin to mount and as we see more homeowners turn back their keys to their lenders, I think this is where the stress line in the economy is most significant.

March 1st 2008: Ali Veshi Questioning Authority FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN [Ben Bernanke]: I don't

anticipate stagflation. I don't think we are anywhere near the situation that prevailed in the 1970s. I do expect inflation to come down.

“ROMANS: He is wrong about stagflation. That is not good for your money, your jobs, your investments…We are here to help you through it all and to make sense of what is happening for your money.”

ALI VELSHI, CNN HOST: Hey Christine, all those things that you just said, compounding into Ben Bernanke and President Bush saying it's not as bad as it looks or there is no recession, that's not what I am hearing on the ground in Texas. I have been here for more than a week. I will tell you, Texans, like the rest of Americans, are resilient. They are not in a bad mood about it; they are very concerned about the economy.

March 23rd 2008– Jim CramerCramer on CNN

In reference to Cramer Saying: “Bear Stearns is fine. Do not take your money -- if there's one takeaway other than (INAUDIBLE), Bear Stearns is not in trouble. I mean, if anything, they're more likely to be taken over.”

“Were journalists too slow to recognize the magnitude of the housing crisis, the credit crunch, and the stock market swoon?"

March 17, 2008Soledad O'Brien Lou Dobbs discuss Bear Stearn

s

Why was there a bailout?Dobbs: "it is not a recourse that is available to

millions of homeowners in this country who are facing the prospect of foreclosure.”

O’Brien: "so this doesn't help homeowners at all? there is no kind of trickle?”

Dobbs "absolutely not”

Defining a Recession

• April 30th 2008

•Here, Peter Schiff takes educational steps in order to inform CNN’s audience of economic terms such as GDP and actually defining a “recession”

August, 2008 Mortgage Meltdown "SHIBLEY: Just in the sense of educating people

properly. The subprime was kind of the bottom here. They were the -- that's the group of people that were really desperate and didn't mind taking a risky loan program because they had to compensate for their inability to qualify under normal guidelines.

SERWER: Paul, were these people -- should these people not have been given mortgages?

PAUL KRUGMAN: Many of them shouldn't. Many of them shouldn't have been given mortgages that large. And what's happening now is that so many people borrowed up to the hilt to buy houses based on the assumption that prices would only keep going up."

Lehman Brothers Collapse: Sept 15th 2008

•What went wrong?

•Another informational piece given to audiences that want to know that exact question: “what went wrong?”

February 7th 2009 WILLIS: The crisis in housing started a chain reaction in the

economy and led us to the troubles we're seeing today. The housing crisis continues, Foreclosures, homes sitting on the market, adequate housing out of reach for many Americans. I sat down with the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, to find out how he plans to fix the problem.

DONOVAN: The key effort at limiting foreclosures will be using a significant amount, tens of billions are dollars, of TARP money to be able to accelerate, dramatically, modifications of mortgages. And what we are working on is a plan to create a set of incentives, assistance, to do that, while at the same time making sure that we have the tools that will ensure that lenders do it, through a range of options.

Prevention and the Financial Reform Bill June 12, 2010

Discussing and explaining the Consumer Financial Protection agency: “But, the more important one, really, is that financial advisers ought to be held to a higher stand than they are, right now. I'm not confident that's going to be in there. Eighty-five percent of financial or people giving financial advice in this country are not required to act in their client's best interests.”

So, really, the fiduciary standard, it's a big word, but what it means is that they are legally required to act in their client's best interest.

June 30th 2010 A focus on the individual: “More Than Half of

Americans Feel Negative Impacts From Recession”

“Before the economic recession hit in 2007, Lana Melnik was a college counselor at Northeastern University in Massachusetts guiding hundreds of students towards employment. Now, at 57, she's been laid off from her school, and she is taking temporary stints as a substitute teacher until she secures a full-time job.”

“More than 55 percent of adults in the U.S. labor force are feeling the impact of unemployment or wage and work hour reductions since the economic downturn began 2 and a half years ago, according to a broad report from the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends Project.”

Our Summaries of CNN’s Coverage