Gene Slater (2022), Richard Rothstein (2015) and George Lipsitz (2024) on Housing and Media

 

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This week on CounterSpin: The palace intrigue around the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, soft-launching the idea of a 50-year mortgage suggests the reveal was perhaps mistimed, but that doesn’t mean it’s not reflective of the sort of policy the Trump White House is intent on.

And though the idea of extending payments over time under the guise of making home ownership more accessible seems to have landed poorly with economists right, left and center, much of corporate news media were willing to give it a reflexively respectful whirl.

Housing and home ownership represent a critical vector in the project of a multi-racial democracy, and we’ve talked about that a lot on the show.  This week we revisit relevant, informed conversations with veteran housing analysts and advocates: Gene Slater, Richard Rothstein and George Lipsitz.

Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at media coverage of Donald Trump’s 50-year mortgage scheme.