Jacobin Radio Behind the News: How Mortgage Fraud Devastated East New York w/ Stacy Horn
Feb 17, 2026
Stacy Horn, journalist and author of The Killing Fields of East New York, traces 1970s mortgage fraud, blockbusting and redlining that gutted a Brooklyn neighborhood. David Backer, education professor and author of As Public as Possible, examines why school finance is unequal and how funding reforms could help. Short, sharp conversations about predatory finance and the politics of education funding.
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How Financial Crimes Deepened Urban Decline
- Mortgage fraud and blockbusting in East New York exploited racial housing policies to trigger mass foreclosures and abandonment.
- Stacy Horn shows these financial crimes amplified preexisting racism, deindustrialization, and white flight to devastate the neighborhood.
Bribed Appraisals And Inflated Mortgages
- Brokers bribed FHA appraisers and underwriters to certify repairs that never happened and inflated appraisals.
- Buyers moved into dangerous, unrehabilitated buildings and thousands of foreclosures followed, leaving abandoned, vandalized properties.
Why White-Collar Crimes Hide Longer
- Financial crimes are harder to detect because victims may not know they're defrauded until much later.
- Investigators first noticed patterns via mass foreclosures and unusual mortgage approvals with no income verification.
