Profiles: Stigma compounds stress

July 21, 2011

This senior engineer, on the brink of foreclosure, cashed in half of his retirement savings to pay off what he owed the bank in overdue mortgage payments.

Profiles: Learning to live with less

July 21, 2011

“When you buy a house together, you think you’re going to live there together… but unfortunately it didn’t work that way,” said Janet Lopez, who feels like she is starting over.

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Profiles: No plans to retire

July 21, 2011

Susie Ku and her husband, Jung Ku, saved to buy a house in which they could retire, but they couldn't maintain the payments or find renters who could.

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Profiles: Stress worsens health

July 21, 2011

For three years, Pretti Hilton has been struggling to modify the loan on her two-bedroom home with Bank of America. She says she has sent them her financial documents at least 30 times, and while her determination to save her home is palpable, so is her stress level.

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Profiles: Still hopeful

July 21, 2011

Having onced lived in a one-bedroom trailer with her five children, Margaret Cedeno is doing all she can to avoid losing her house, athough the entire household unemployed. Cedeno is hoping to obtain a loan modification.

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Profiles: Large family makes do with less

July 20, 2011

Evicted from their three-bedroom home after falling behind on mortgage payments, René Lopez and his family now squeeze into a much smaller apartment.

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Profiles: Family won't give up

July 20, 2011

Donna Vieira has become a fixture in Reno's Washoe County Courthouse ever since her family lost their second home to foreclsoure. Vieira says Wells Fargo over-appraised the property.

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Profiles: Senior loses her independence

July 20, 2011

Ethel Gist realized she could no longer afford her “dream home” during the height of the recession, when her adjustable rate mortgage jumped. Today, she lives with her daughter and grandchildren in a rental house.

Profiles: Thrown into an unstable rental market

July 20, 2011

After the foreclosure of her condo, Brenda Fuller moved from rental to rental while dealing with a pile of debt.

What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele are revisiting America: What Went Wrong, their landmark 1991 newspaper series, in a new project with the Investigative Reporting Workshop. Over the next year, the project team will examine how four decades of public policy has shaped America's ongoing economic crisis.

Issues

Back Story

The authors talk about What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele talk about the project, and why they decided to revisit a book they wrote two decades ago, in a series of video clips produced by the Workshop.

Nation's Story

Who pays the taxes?

Who pays the taxes?

We feature charts, maps, photos and other visualizations that reflect the state of the economy as part of our What Went Wrong project. This column chart shows the growing disparity between what individuals and corporations pay in taxes. In the 1950s, the difference was 22 percent. Recent figures show the difference is 62 percent.

Rags to rags: Economic mobility hard to come by

New Pew Center on States report confirms that moving up the American economic ladder is difficult, even though most people have more income than their parents.

Homelessness takes it toll on Florida's youngest

Florida, as a center of the housing boom, still struggles to recover from the Great Recession. Financial stresses and widespread foreclosures have placed families in precarious situations, resulting in a spike in child homelessness. Susannah Nesmith reports in the Broward Bulldog.

Older workers face challenges in Silicon Valley

An advanced degree and experience in the tech sector should be a ticket to a job in today's economy. But older workers in the heart of the new economy, Silicon Valley, are finding their resume is not the issue. Aaron Glantz reports in The Bay Citizen.

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Read an Excerpt

The Betrayal of the American Dream on Google Books

The Betrayal of the American Dream on Google Books

Check out the first chapter of Barlett and Steele's 2012 book here.