Confused About The Current Subprime Mortgage Crisis? Megadeth Can Help

Download: Megadeth - "Foreclosure Of A Dream"

Via Salon, I found this excellent article comparing the "current subprime contagion and the savings and loan fiasco of the early nineties" using the song "Foreclosure Of A Dream" by thrash-metal stalwarts Megadeth. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Fronted by someone who was kicked out of Metallica for taking too many controlled substances, Dave Mustaine, Megadeth nonetheless made several memorable tunes on its commercial breakthrough Countdown to Extinction... the song whose video I excerpt above refers to regular folks getting foreclosed in the US of A in the wake of the S&L crisis. The clip dates to 1992, I believe. The visual motif in "Foreclosure of a Dream" is of everyday people being kicked out of their houses who end up sitting on couches they removed from their former residences. It works for me. An especially poignant picture is of the African-American mother and child sitting outside of the White House. It is widely noted that minorities have taken a disproportionate share of subprime loans, so perhaps Megadeth was prescient of Bush's "ownership society."

Of course, this analysis is ironic in light of the fact that, post-sobriety, Mustaine has become a Bush-supporting Born-Again Christian. Nonetheless, the article is still an entertaining, enlightening read. Click here to take a gander for yourself.

(Jonathan Graef)