Obama's Moral Capitalism: Resuscitating the American Dream

Abstract:     
Fairness is a fundamental principle of American culture. Is it also a constitutional principle to redress economic oppression? Simply, does the U.S. Constitution protect its citizens from predatory lending practices? Will President Obama's call for empathy in constitutional jurisprudence protect America's middle and under-privileged classes from class discrimination?

This Article challenges the fairness of subjecting certain borrowers to overreaching, economically-oppressive lending practices. This seminal approach to the issue of predatory lending explores how established constitutional principles might protect and redress past, present, and future predatory lending victims, often socially and economically disadvantaged citizens. It seeks to define a novel constitutional theory, hereinafter entitled "moral capitalism," guaranteeing freedom from economic oppression and ensuring financial fair dealing. It concludes that class is the civil-rights' issue of the twenty-first century.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

Keywords: President Obama, moral capitalism, predatory lending victims, economic oppression, capitalism, middle class, under-privileged, predation, subprime mortgages, war on the middle class, predatory capitalism

Accepted Paper Series