October 1, 2007 (LPAC)--EIR's Mike Billington appeared on a Vermont radio show moderated by Jim Hogue, but it turned into an hour long debate/discussion with Bruce Marks, head of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), who was also invited to be on the show. Marks has testified in Congressional and other hearings on predatory lenders and the detestation of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The show began with Hogue reading the entire HBPA, and a discussion with Billington of the global banking collapse now unfolding. When Marks came in, he accurately described the looting process of the sub-prime scam of the past years, but advocated only that we must convince lenders to renegotiate the mortgages.

A friendly debate ensued on the irrelevance of that approach in the face of the multi-trillion dollar blow out, and the need for FDR-leadership, like that of LaRouche, to freeze the mortgages and solve the global banking problem. Marks argued that the crisis was a matter of greed, but Billington insisted that greed is a subset of power, and that the Congress is failing to act due to fear, just as they fail to stop the Iraq war or the coming Iran war out of fear. He reviewed the tremendous surge of support for the HBPA in state legislatures and other local institutions, and called on people to take courage from the LYM-led mobilization and join the fight. Marks preferred to encourage people to persuade lenders to be nice, but he admitted that the crisis is far bigger than that, and voiced his support for a Congressionally mandated freeze.