Foreclosures

While we talk of recovery, the personal pain of poverty is all around us. Some seeds of today’s troubles were sown by the responses – or lack of them – to the financial crises. January represented the 11th straight month of more than 300,000 properties receiving foreclosure filings in the country, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac, which is predicting a record 3 million foreclosures this year.  Some lawmakers have profited from investments in companies that have received federal bailouts; dozens of lawmakers are invested in Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gained about $9.2 million. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) gained about $3 million, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) had an estimated $2.6 million gain, and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) gained about $2.8 million. I bet that no one on this list home is in foreclosure!