E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Riot police try to arrest members of the "Stop Deshaucios," Stop Evictions, social movement during a protest to prevent an eviction in Oviedo, northern Spain on June 27, 2012.
Photos and text by Eloy Alonso / Reuters:
Protesters tried to prevent the eviction of an Ecuadorian family unable to maintain its mortgage payments in Oviedo, northern Spain. Jorge Cordero, his wife Patricia and five-month-old daughter Amanda were evicted because they could not keep up mortgage payments to the Cajastur bank. Seventeen people locked themselves in the apartment with the owner and around 200 people gathered outside to try and stop the eviction. Jorge's wife and baby daughter were not present in the apartment during the eviction. Twenty people were arrested. The plight of over one million Spanish people facing a crippling mortgage debt is increasingly attracting public support as an anti-eviction movement places pressure on politicians to act.
Related content:
- Spain's economic crisis turns middle-class families into illegal squatters
- Faces of the Spanish crisis
Activists from the "Stop Deshaucios," Stop Evictions, social movement throw buckets of water from a balcony to prevent police entry during a forced eviction.
Riot police take cover from water thrown from balconies by protesters of an anti-eviction social movement.
Spanish riot police restrain a member of the "Stop Deshaucios," Stop Evictions, social movement during a protest to prevent an eviction in Oviedo.
Leave a Comment:
Many in America now live in their homes without paying their mortgage payments for months and even years ....
I agree bigben. There are a lot of sad situations right now and we can blame any number of causes (do you remember USA gas price jumps in 2008????) but it is what it is. And bottom line, if your neighbor asks to borrow your lawn mower and refuses to give it back, I think you should have some recourse. His argument that you are a bad person, greedy, or he is disadvantaged does not justify it.
Government henchmen at it again
funny you would think the cops wouldn't try to start a war for "the banks" and just say "sorry there is a mass protest at the moment, sorry bank youll have to sort this out with them diplomatically so no one gets hurt"
when did police forget they too could lose their jobs and be on that end eventually as well.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." - Thomas Jefferson
“The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.”
-Abraham Lincoln
"A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world--no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."
-President Woodrow Wilson
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance."
-James Madison
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws"
-Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild
“The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it’s profits or so dependent on it’s favors, that there will be no opposition from that class.”
-Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863
"While boasting of our noble deeds were careful to conceal the ugly fact that by an iniquitous money system we have nationalized a system of oppression which, though more refined, is not less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery."
-Horace Greeley
"The Federal Reserve bank buys government bonds without one penny..."
-Congressman Wright Patman, Congressional Record, Sept 30, 1941
"...the increase in the assets of the Federal Reserve banks from 143 million dollars in 1913 to 45 billion dollars in 1949 went directly to the private stockholders of the [federal reserve] banks."
-Eustace Mullins
"The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money"
-Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., 1923
"Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back."
-Sir Josiah Stamp, former President, Bank of England
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
-John Adams
This is something you'll never learn in school because it isn't deemed important. Learn the past to make sure that it isn't repeated in the future. Which we are going through the same things, again and again and again...
When did police and armies forget that these are their fellow citizens? The mentality that it takes to see your fellow man as the enemy is what you all should be questioning. From Spain to china and over to NYC, its the same mentality. A right wing mentality. hate your brother and worship power. hmmm I remember reading about that mentality back history class. Something about Germany. And at KENT state university in OHIO back in the 1960s. When American soldiers shot your children, just like china who ran their school kids over with tanks.
Cops do as they are told because they are afraid of losing their jobs. They have families to support, too. It becomes a conflict of interest imposed upon them by the same dirtbags who have grabbed all the wealth and power.
Trust2112: You are one of the 1% of 1% who are aware of this. Most of us are unwitting sheep being led to our slaughter.
Trust you hit the nail on the head.
Now this is a cause I could get behind.
We have become a nation of deadbeats and freeloaders. They are killing this country.
You can't blame the cops. They had a court order. It would be illegal for the cops to refuse to enforce it. When people physically resist legally authorized police activities, the cops have no choice but to arrest/detain/remove them so that the police can get on with their job, which is to carry out the orders of the courts. This is the very core of the principle of the rule of law. Individual persons exert their political will by voting, not by rioting. Their elected representatives make the laws, the courts interpret and apply the laws, and the police carry out the orders of the courts. It may not be a perfect system, but the only alternatives are anarchy or a dictatorship. As Winston Churchill said, "democracy is the worst imaginable form of government...except for all the others."
That being said, it is important to remember that being poor is not a crime, and being compassionate is not weakness. Mark Taft in #1.10 says "We have become a nation of deadbeats and freeloaders. They are killing this country." There is nothing so comforting as to imagine that the victims of suffering are to blame for their problems. This assumption allows you to feel safe because you believe bad things cannot happen to you because you don't do bad things. Sadly, this is not true. What you should be thinking is: there, but for the grace of God, go I. To put it another way, be nice to people on your way up, as you may pass them again on your way down.
Was this just a statement or were you going to provide an opinion?
Can't the same be said for your comment?
Sorry, duplicate.
Where are these people supposed to go? Unemployment there is 25% and things are not improving. Those kinds of conditions feed revolution.
Without massive reforms Europe will go bankrupt. With massive reforms you place the majority of the burden on the poor and underprivileged, unless of course the rich want to pay a hefty share to prop up their countries. How likely is the latter to happen?
When Europe collapses the world is in for some interesting times.
We would be close to that 25% too if they figured the #'s like they did for everyone before obama! And with this president, even they are calling this the "new norm"!
M Andrew- your comment is factually wrong regarding the unemployment numbers. The change in the unemployment formula was impliemented under the Bush admin during the post Enron collapse. However your correct that under the old method of calculating unemployment we are around 22 to 25 percent unemployed in this country. Also we are a major stressor to our own economy away from having civil unrest in our own nation.
thanks!
M Andrew, do you hold Congress equally responsible for the economic conditions? Or does Boehner and his do nothing brethren get a free pass?
McConnell made it quite clear where the GOP stands on improving our country's economic condition when he stated that the Teapubs' sole responsibility will be to make Obama a 1-term president. Must be quite enlightening to a family being evicted that 1/2 of their elected officials want to run this country into the ground so they can get their corporate puppet into the WH.
While I agree with your comment GBR, people are too weak-willed to start revolutions. Many are dependant on some form of government as well. Also, there is a large amount of self-sacrifice expected in order to create a successful revolution. Do you know any unselfish people willing to die for a cause? No, these people will whine, but they will take it, because they don't know anything else.
I am not trying to be rude to anyone, but we all know this to be truth. Honestly think about it and you will see the same thing.
It was the government's intention years ago to make people "slaves" by giving them hand-outs, e.g., food stamps, housing vouchers, Medicaid, etc. This has made slaves of many, many people and in return it is understood that you do not bite the hand that feeds you and you will vote Democrat!!!!! You are 100% right it is hard to get people to revolt against a government when they also depend on that same corrupt government for their healthcare, food, and shelter.
You don't need death and guns to have a revolution. Gandhi defeated the great British empire with no war. Imagine 400 million Americans sending one post card on the same day to the fed reserve or congress. Imagine doing that to a corporation. you would shut them down for a month at least. and if you did that every day? you could put them out of business. The only real weapon we have is unity not guns. But i guess you now understand why we are divided by the media and powers that be.
The socialists in Europe (and in the US even) spent tomorrow's money yesterday. Now they are sucking wind. Socialism and statism never works.
Banks Don't Care. They want the money or your out on the street. Many people are homeless. It's sad but true.
That was the deal when people signed the contract. Don't act surprised now.
You mean the contracts that were created by the banks Attorneys?
Yes, the contracts that people don't bother reading before they sign. If you don't want to take the chance of losing something, don't borrow money. It's actually very simple.
The banks and the other wealthy people that controll finances and buisness worked their asses off to destroy the economy of the world so that they could make a few bucks. Now they are more than happy to detroy the remnants of the lives of all the people they screwed over. The banks will screw you no matter where you live, i think the big banks should be allowed to fail, they are doing it to themselves, let them go tits up, deal with the economic collapse and start over with small community buisnesses that dont drain the wealth and resources of every area they move into. Trickle down effect my ass, all the money goes to the owner many states away and the only thing it does for the communities in our country is provide a few minimum wage jobs. Then they sit back and wonder why every one is broke.
This is just the beginning. Look out banks, careful how hard you push for the sake of greed. What comes around goes around. At least look like your trying to help. If not, your time is limited and chaos will be the next step in this evil dance. I think the banking system needs to take a break from the we must make a huge profit on everything we do line of thinking and make a smaller profit and try to stabilize the worlds economy. Kicking people out of there house does not make the general public support your ideals. I know that banks are not the enemy, but they are part of the problem and need to be part of the solution. Invest heavily in small businesses and lower the value of houses/buildings to there current level so that people can find work and be able to pay there rent/mortgage. The banks could be the hero instead of the villian. They will still make money and in the long run their investments will pay off. Just a thought.
ask yourself a few qusetions. if you are owed money, you want it right? if some person says to you, loan me $50,000.00, and ill give you my house as collateral, and these people do not pay you.... how fast would you boot them to the curb? even on bartering, the same thing happens. its a trade, on an agreement to pay. same as writing a check at a store. you write the check, you have a note saying you have the ability to pay, thru your bank, with your authorisation (signature). if you dont have that $ how fast do you end up seeing the police at your door?
it doesnt matter if you lose your job or or what ever your source of income, you make an agreement, you are not entitled to default just because. that isnt the person who you owe money to's problem, its yours.
if you dont want to be out on the curb oweing 50k, dont buy a house and use it as collateral, if you know there is a possibility you might lose your income. i dont feel stable even tho we have a contract that will last till i retire. because if the cash cow keeping me working stops, so does that contract. as a middle class american who worked for 25 solid years, i have 0 faith in our own economic situation... that of is also tied into the EU crisis.
can blame the banks all you want to.... you made the deal, you are obligated to fufill it.
Look in the mirror and say this to yourself after you've lost everything you've had.
i did lose everything... i was living in a storage bin for a few months at one point, and i had a hard time struggleing to afford even that. but i didnt give up, and i didnt cry about it. i wasnt happy with the way things were, and STILL are, but i deal with it.
i hold no shame in what i can be held accountable for... but a deal is a deal. you want to hold someone accountable look in the mirror, look around your house, out your window. you dont buy american, you put americans out of work. do the math.
What financial institutions are to blame for is bundling mortgage backed securities of questionable value and selling them as investment grade, then taking out insurance from companies such as AIG to cover any losses from these same securities if the bubble burst.
In short, they knew they were selling crap and hedged it so they wouldn't get stuck holding the bag, someone else would.
And what did they get in return, well their former Goldman buddies in Washington took care of them.
Big bonus' all around for that astute move, while they tanked the economy.
My son's home mortgage was sold and resold to 5 different institutions. When the economy fell threw he lost his job.(thank goodness he has a job today) but he lost the house ,had to move in with his inlaws ( great people) Never took handouts got 1 st job within 5 days as a rent a cop disarmed. Then got his Lic. to be armed and from therehe landed his present job. Now when the foreclosure came it was from country wide, the last of the ones to buy the mortgage. That loan should never have been made to begin with, he should not have taken it out (even if he was making more then enough money to pay for it) I told him don't take the loan something just doesn't sound right about it. My point being the selling forward of the mortgages to 5 companies and you could never get an of them to help in trying to refinance, or find some creative ways to let them keep the house. But as was said above you sign a contract your bound to it (morally)
But then these banks have no morals,just us the tax payers to bail them out. The problem is the banks get payed there mortgage insurance any way and still sell the house cheaper, so they kinda get payed 2 x's ,that's why they do it. They are not in the business to own homes with no one paying for them. But the CEO's and bean counters are in the business of making money
Gangsta bankers? Seems to me the people who take out loans for things they know they can't afford and stick the bill to YOU are the gangsters. Seems like people who don't read what they sign are the dumbsters.
Banks promise you the title to your house, car, etc. when you pay back the loan in full. They promise you that you get to live in your house and keep driving your in the meantime as long as you make the payments. They NEVER promised you lifetime employment, cradle to grave entitlements, or anything of the like. It is up to YOU to work your life around that. Life is hard as times, yes- but you shouldn't count on all your days being sunny anyway.
Should be no more bail outs for banks and take your money out
Hotticket, I believe CPOSharkey pinpointed the problem here; It's the "too big to fail" taxpayer bailout after wild speculation by the banking system. Banks are tossing out the same folks that paid for their corporate survival.
As a landlord, I agree with you; no pay, no stay. But, I would think very differently if my tenants gave me a bundle of cash "as a gift".
The deadbeats want desperately to blame others for their problems. The banks are the favorite ones to blame but they will always find someone else to blame. It never seems to be the deadbeats fault.
In the USA basic math is politically incorrect and inconvenient to our lifestyle. Our national debt is $16.2 trillion. The anual interest on this debt is $486 billion per year. In 2015 the national debt will be appox $22.2 trillion and the interest at 3% will be $666 trillion per year(with annual deficits of $1.5 trillion per year.). This is a very conservative estimate because in 2014 all baby boomers will retire on borrowed $ or electronically created money aka the modern printing press. The austerity programs for the USA are on the horizon. Take notes and take heed of Greece and Spain because this will be the future of the USA very shortly. We have become a dysfunctional nation of dem and rep herd intellects and our national debt which will destroy us ,is not a major issue but homosexual marriage and legal marijuana are major issues. Here stands our union Mr. Webster"a nation of fools".
Not to worry, our astute politicians will handle the baby boomer retirements by letting Goldman get it greedy little paws on Social Security.
In short, the baby boom generation will never retire.........
got that right, CPO. Most all the boomers I know who are not gubmint employees intend to keep working into their late 60's or beyond. Meanwhile, gubmint employee boomers are already retired and private sector folks of all ages are expected to keep forking over the dough. Mikeyknows numbers fit what I've read elsewhere and economists of many stipes all the way to Rbt Reisch say this debt and deficit thing is a killer. The day will come and it's not that far off - we'll be squealin like the PIIGS of Europe. All you people who keep buyin all that Chinese stuff and foreign built autos probably think the Chinese are going to write your unemployment checks but I don't think so.
Correction in 2016 our national debt will be appox 22.2, not 2015.
so how is it that around the globe, so many people are in underwater housing deals? These situations don't just happen on this sort of scale w/o some root cause. How can it be that such a pct. of people just went out and signed up for loans they can't cover over the past 5-10 years?
This is an institutional problem, not an individual problem. I find it incredible that so many banks/lenders, around the world made so many bad deals at the same time-- no oversight, no checks and balance-- just a global cash grab it seems.
We are screwed - forget Obama/Bush/Romney/E20/the Euro etc -- this is a financial atomic bomb that we, globally, have constructed and dropped on ourselves. Greed is not good in this scenario-- we are in real trouble.
Goldman sold those mortgage backed securities on the worldwide market, many worldwide financial institutions and retirement funds bought them based on the rating (Moody's, Standard & Poors), and when the bubble burst, everyone but Goldman took a loss.
That's because Goldman knew they were selling crap, and bought an insurance policy from AIG to hedge against the possibility those mortgage backed securities would tank.
So, certain former Goldman executives at Treasury made sure AIG got a bailout to pay on the Goldman policy.
Meanwhile, everone else took a bath, even foreign banks. It collapsed our construction market and the foreign construction market because real estate loans tightened up. After that, it has been a continuous downward spiral, as construction job losses are a very large part of any economy.
Mikeyknows?- The baby boomers paid into SS all their working lives. Congress was NEVER supposed to spend the $$$$.
But they did. Let those thieves figure out a way to fix SS. AND by the way.. SS adds nothing to the debt/deficit.
The GOP/Teabaggers are calling it a Ponzi scheme because they don't want to pay out. Screw them and screw you. My parents WILL get their SS !!!!
Give the Teapublicans in Congress credit for doing something during the past 3+ years: They are good at marketing names for anything that fails to fit their all-for-corporate-profit model: "Ponzi Scheme", "Socialist/ism", "Liberal", "ObamaCare", etc.
Most of these people are underwater because they used their homes as ATM machines. If you listen most have a 2nd or 3rd mortgage on their home and that is the reason they owe more on it than it is worth.
Hannah-2721721
Ah the sickly-sweet scent of innumeracy. The money your parents paid into SS is gone. All that exists is an extremely large IOU.
Stop and think for a minute. SS used to take in more than it needed that money was then "borrowed" by the general fund and spent. SO now the general fund is missing that easy money it used to borrow but spending has not gone down. So more money must be borrowed on the open market, which increases borrowing costs. On top of that the IOU must now be repaid. Without a major tax hike and/or spending cuts though the payback, SS checks, will have to be borrowed. If your parents are banking upon SS then they are screwed.
Yet another incomplete article, designed to provoke arguments. I would have preferred that the author add information about how much of the Spanish population is facing default on mortgages, and if many, like our own population, had taken out mortgages beyond their means.
Yes, the major banks are at fault for their actions enticing people to take out mortgages, but no one was forced to sign for a loan. Banks should not be held responsible for an individual's lack of personal responsibility to figure out what they can and cannot afford. If you can't afford to save a down payment, how can you expect to make mortgage payments? If you don't understand basic money matters, find someone to teach you. Too many, both individuals and banks, gave in to the 'we want it all right now' mentality, and now the credit card payment is due.
They're picking on those poor little innocent banks again, in other words. It's the people who took out loans and then deliberately lost their jobs who are at fault. The meanies.
Get mad, comment and argue with fellow writer's, spend time finding statistics on our debt, watch the boob tube, blog, rage, protest, vote for the only party in office the Dem/Repub party because they are one in the same....divide and conquer.... Or throw them all out and start over. YOU can use the time you spend watching the tube, blogging, getting mad or what ever you do. It can be done, but not without YOU, Me, Our friends, Our Families and anyone you can talk to. We all know what's coming...are we just going to sit here until the drone's know our every move and put a stop to whatever they don't like us doing? Is this our country or theirs? Egypt did it, people's congress dot org
The banksters made the loans....the uneducated signed the line where the bankster pointed...the banksters knew it couldn't be paid back......so what's up! What's the larger plan, its hard to see through all this smoke with my eyes burning!
None. Just insatiable greed run amok. The future is very scarey when you realize the elite are just highend pathological hoarders.
Yet, we give them huge tax breaks "to creat jobs". What a joke.
This same kind of movement has happened here, just to a lesser extent. But, if there is another big downturn in the economy like in 2008, things could turn real ugly in the USA too.
Guess where Romney's sympathies will lie - with the once middle class who have lost everything, or with the wall street investment bankers?
Romney is for Romney. This is what bored rich guys like him do to get attention and to expand their networking rolo-dex; they run for President.
When my kids ask me what they should be when they grow up, I'm going to tell them be banksters. They may not sleep well at night....but they'll have a house to sleep in.
The 3 amigos: Government, banks & investors. When they meet behind closed doors in secret, it's a good bet the general public thereof is about to get an enema.
It is very sad we one loses the roof over our head, However, there was many People in Portugal and Spain who could not afford a regular apartment but thru some under the table gifts and connections qualified to buy great huge houses and apartments knowing that under the old system once they were in no one could kick them out, times chnaged and banks do need to be paid or otherwise they will no be there when we need a house , car, student loan or any other monies ..... Lets face it, there was plenty and we all bought more then we could pay...now we are at this
Sorry to say, dude, but you may consider reading and editing your posts; Grammer and spelling tossed way out. Just saying, as it's like decyphering hieroglyphics.
JK from Pa: that's "grammar" dude. :)
My question is with the economy beating the middle class into the dirt who will buy these apartments and homes? The 1 % ?
The 1% yes, or the 10% yes, or anyone who knows that the Fed manipulates the money supply and engineers bubbles and busts.
That's the point ... keep your powder dry (conserve cash) and buy when things can't get much cheaper.
Big banks have ruined the world's economy. It is all about greed.
Socialize the banks, end the greed, let people re-write their loans, AND stop throwing people out of their homes.
I hope these BANKSTERS get stuck with all this property !!!
Jack-booted government thugs beating down on desperate evictees unable to pay the rent or mortgage? It's as though the Repugnican vision for America has been realized in Spain.
Its a shame that wasn't gas they were pouring down the could have flipped a cigarette butt and won that standoff
Since when is stealing a "right"? When you take something (like a place to live) without paying for it, then you are stealing it. Cops should have shot the whole mob dead on the spot as criminals caught in the act and failing to surrender. I for one am sick and tired of the liberal BS which makes it allowable for those being detained by the police to behave like violent animals..., while the Police are forced to treat them with "kid gloves".
Yes because the world is just that @!$%#ing simple... You guy's wear your ignorant, simplistic, idiotic worldview like a badge of honor. It's frightening.
Tell us, what good is it if instead of working with people to rewrite their mortgages to realistic values and interests rates, we kick everyone out? Do you think that really helps the economy or society in general?
What do you expect people to do ...lay down and die! People will do anything to prevent their children from starving ...and you would to..your just lucky your a "
Retired"I mean "Retarded Loafer"...the rest of us will never be able to retire.The ironic part is that Socialism was always touted as the superior economic platform because it treated people with dignity and respect ---- by the looks of the pics I'd say that is a load of sh*t!. All these promises made by gov't officials and all these entitlement programs, that people wanted --- there is no way to pay for it all, so the end result is financial collapse.
---- Prime Minister Thatcher was correct when she said " the problem with Socialism, is that eventually you run out of other people's money." Germany is tired of bailing out other countries (other people's money), so what 's left for these socialist nations? Anarchy that's what is left.
Unfortunately the US is heading in the same direction -- since we have a president who has created the same economic chaos and made it OK to stand around with your hand out demanding that someone else pay their way.(OWS miscreants)
Yes... Obama created the economic collapse. Jesus @!$%#ing christ....
JakeIAm--alinnj got it right basically in spite of the comment about Obama who isn't making the economic condition any better even if he didn't create it.
I am seeing and hearing that Spain ,Ireland, Greece, Portugal and a number of others are "Loosing" there
Pensions to make up for Government Money Shortages and even France
Sounds to me like a "Do it or Else" ......Scarey !
Its a Gigantic "Shuffle Game" money is how we people are Controlled
Money is God !
It is a question of how much free money do you want. My neighbors on Dunn Cirlce are in default on their mortgage for the past year; they owe COSTCO 10 K and Bayport Credit 70 K. All 5 of them work; they're just not paying the bills. Their scam is a simple one. All the bills are placed in Scott's name and when he defaults the creditors have no recourse; meanwhile the rest bank their income. Same with the rest of these deadbeats. So they lose their home and move into an apartment - what's the loss to society.
How, exactly, do you know all this about your neighbors creepo?
JakeIAm---re. atelier-- one of those neighbors probably bragged about it to someone--haven't you ever known a deadbeat?--they tend to be impressed by their own scam tactics and think everyone else will be too.