The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "financial industry" ...
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The Great Mortgage Cover-Up
These stories reveal one of the hidden causes of the financial crisis- how corporate codes of silence helped lenders to flood the nation with toxic mortgages. They document evidence that major banks and lenders systematically muzzled whistle blowers who tried to fight against forged documents, falsified appraisals, and other frauds in the mortgage industry.
Tags: financial crisis; mortgages; forged documents; crisis
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The Champions
The series examines the relationship between seven members of Congress and the industries or causes that they have taken up as champions, looking at how their advocacy not only helps their own political careers, in many cases, but frequently generates a personal financial benefit for the lawmaker or members of their family.
Tags: Congress; causes; industries; finance; family
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Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs
The passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act included provisions requiring five government financial agencies to log meetings with financial companies, employees or lobbyists on their individual websites.
Tags: Dodd-Frank; consumer; Congess; financial industry
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The Monster How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America -- and Spawned a Glboal Crisis
"The Monster" investigates the history of the subprime mortgage business by unraveling the corporate histories of the industry's two most important players, Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. The book documents the widespread fraud and law-breaking that were largely to blame for the financial system's meltdown.
Tags: Lehman Brothers; Ameriquest; subprime mortgage; lender
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Florida's Insurance Nightmare
Six years after eight hurricanes ripped across Florida, state residents still struggle to recover from the storms' legacy - a wrecked property insurance market. Exorbitant premiums, the highest in the world, have soured the state's struggling economy, killed real estate sales and forced families from their homes. Homeowners were told that unless they paid even more, no insurance company would take their hurricane risk. The Herald-Tribune showed that is a lie. Floridians have been lied to about why there is a crisis, where their money is going, and whether they're even protected against storm losses. Public policy has been corrupted by fiction spun by the insurance industry and its supposed regulators. Billions of dollars desperately needed for the next disaster have been siphoned offshore. And millions of homeowners are left to entrust their financial security on a system rigged to extort profit. To expose the hidden truth of Florida's insurance crisis, St. John cultivated key sources deep within every aspect of the insurance industry and sought massive amounts of financial and policy data from multiple state and national entities. When it became obvious Florida's crisis was manipulated from afar, she traveled to Bermuda and Monte Carlo to discover the hidden players truly in charge.
Tags: home insurance; property insurance; Florida; hurricane; real estate; insurance premiums; homeowners; Bermuda; Monte Carlo; state regulators; anti-trust law; State Farm
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Behind the Label
This documentary exposes an unregulated system that financially rewards the overmedication of children with antipsychotic drugs. "Some states, doctors, agencies and even certain foster parents profit at the expense of children's health - driven by complicated state funding formulas and the influence of the pharmaceutical industry."
Tags: children; pharmaceuticals; antipsychotic drugs; prescriptions; adolescents; Medicaid;
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"Capitol Gains"
In this series of stories, Wall Street Journal reporters analyzed "more than 6,000 financial-disclosure" documents to show how "lawmakers and congressional aides" were able to find and use loopholes "in ethics rules to profit from trading the stocks of companies and industries that they oversee on Capitol Hill."
Tags: Capitol Hill; lawmakers; Congress; congressional; financial crisis; stock market
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"Little Leagues, Big Costs"
This five-day series chronicles the experiences with youth sports of high school and college athletes and coaches. By establishing "baseline data" that has been previously unreported, Dispatch reporters found a "corrupted" sports program overrun with angry parents and practices that cause severe injury to young athletes. Rising costs and financial competitions are added pressures to the industry.
Tags: youth-sports; IRS 990s; NCAA; NCAA Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act; Nexis; Ohio State; Gene Smith; Ohio High School Athletic Association; OHSAA; OSU
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World of Trouble
This story is a “rare account of the forces that created the U.S. housing bubble and tore the world economy to pieces”. The major finding of the story was executives inside one of the largest lending companies, deliberately ignored warnings from their front line salesmen. This company was loaning money to people who would not be able to pay them back and later was victim to “more than 30 billion dollars of bad loans”.
Tags: World Savings and Loan; Golden West Financial; Wachovia; bank; mortgage; industry; Paul Bishop; homeowners
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The Card Game
This story investigates the “future of the massive consumer loan industry and its impact on a fragile national economy”. This story looks into the inner workings of the credit card business and how a number of people are trying to reform the way the industry has done business for years. But some major steps need to be taken before a change can be made.
Tags: Consumer Financial Protection Agency; Congress; banks; finances; government; Providian Financial; interest rates; fees; payments