[Excerpt] Owning a home used to symbolize what it means to achieve the American Dream. But for millions of homeowners, that dream was dashed by the abuse, fraud and lawlessness of Wall Street banks. This chain of misconduct by the Big Banks is at the root of the foreclosure avalanche, the failure of existing government programs to resolve the problem and a fundamental cause of the broader economic crisis that has cost millions of jobs. Failure to resolve the foreclosure crisis is worsening our economic situation and making it harder to create jobs. In turn, unemployment is now the leading cause of foreclosure.