Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, about 30 milllion Americans have been evicted from their homes due to foreclosures. And foreclosures are still going on. Many of those evicted become homeless, living in tent cities or slag cities. The root of this crisis is the inflation of financial markets, moving 14 times the amount of global GDP – money that has no real countervalue. In order to give an appearance of real value to their financial products, investment banks have pushed poor people into mortgages they could not afford – with dire consequences. These products have spread also in Europe, in Hungary already one million people have been evicted due to foreclosures.
Saskia Sassen, professor of sociology at Columbia University, New York, visiting professor at the London School of Economics, author of "The Global City"