Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Featured on Press TV's U.S. Desk: 'Financial Institutions Behind the Economic Crisis in Detroit'

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, depicted in a graphic for Press TV's United States Desk. Azikiwe is a frequent guest on international media outlets., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

‘Financial institutions behind economic crisis in Detroit’

To listen to this statement made by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, over Press TV's U.S. Desk, just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/302072.html

The economic crisis in the U.S. city of Detroit which has been under a “financial emergency,” is the “direct result of the role of financial institutions,” says Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

The financial institutions have wreaked havoc on Detroit’s economy in a number of ways, Azikiwe told Press TV’s U.S. Desk on Sunday. They have caused “the flight of employment, industrial jobs from the city over the last several decades.”

“Also the city was hit by a wave of predatory lending, which in fact, destroyed the housing base of the city” which “at one point had the largest rate of home ownership among working class and middle class people,” he added.

Azikiwe’s comments were in reference to a public meeting held Saturday on the role of the banks in the financial ruin of the largest city in the state if Michigan.

The following are excerpts of the address delivered during the meeting:

"Since late March the city of Detroit has been under a so-called ‘financial emergency’ where right-wing multi-millionaire Gov. Rick Snyder designated Kevyn Orr, a bankers’ agent, to head this municipality in total contravention of the political will of people not only here but around the state.

"When the city loses residents it means that tax revenues go down and this inevitably results in a greater drain of resources for the payment of civil servants and the maintenance of municipal services like public lighting, public transportation, public schools, etc. The banks who evicted the residents of Detroit do not pay taxes on the seized properties many of which now are controlled by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who are deadbeat property occupiers themselves.

"At present there is no viable or legitimate government running the City of Detroit. The current corporate-imposed Mayor and majority City Council voted to abdicate their authority to the state and consequently the banks which have ruined Detroit."

Azikiwe said the financial emergency management “is not going to be working in order to rehabilitate and restructure the city based upon the interest of the people who live here, but based upon the interest of the same financial institutions who are responsible for the decline in the city.”