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    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    How a small group of men made millions while the rest of us lost our homes

    Two years before the housing market collapsed in 2008, Donald Trump said, “I sort of hope that happens because then, people like me would go in and buy.” Well, people like him did. As well as Steve Mnuchin, Tom Barrack, and Wilbur Ross.

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    By Madeleine Brand • Oct 25, 2019 • 1 min read

    Two years before the housing market collapsed in 2008, Donald Trump said, “I sort of hope that happens because then, people like me would go in and buy.” Well, people like him did. As well as Steve Mnuchin, Tom Barrack, and Wilbur Ross. They were men who, maybe not coincidentally, ended up in or near the Trump administration. A new book focuses on their story and the story of the millions of Americans who lost their homes. The book is “Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream.”

    The full episode

    4 of 5
    Tick fire: How evacuees are faring
    1. 0:00How evacuees are coping with the Tick fire
    2. 6:13Attorney General Bill Barr is investigating the investigators of the 2016 election
    3. 12:53Why GOP senators up for reelection might break with Trump over impeachment
    4. 20:22How a small group of men made millions while the rest of us lost our homesYou’re reading this
    5. 36:21What does ‘Black and Blue’ say about race and policing?
    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Madeleine Brand

      Host, 'Press Play'

    • KCRW placeholder

      Sarah Sweeney

      Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW

    • KCRW placeholder

      Michell Eloy

      Former Producer/Line Editor, Press Play

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Amy Ta

      Digital News & Culture Editor

    • KCRW placeholder

      Aaron Glantz

      a Peabody Award-winning journalist with California-based REVEAL and the Center for Investigative Reporting

      CultureBusiness & EconomyBooksHousing & DevelopmentNational

    The full episode

    4 of 5
    Tick fire: How evacuees are faring
    1. 0:00How evacuees are coping with the Tick fire
    2. 6:13Attorney General Bill Barr is investigating the investigators of the 2016 election
    3. 12:53Why GOP senators up for reelection might break with Trump over impeachment
    4. 20:22How a small group of men made millions while the rest of us lost our homesYou’re reading this
    5. 36:21What does ‘Black and Blue’ say about race and policing?
    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand