Michael Hudson was a staff reporter at The Roanoke Times for twenty years, specializing in the problems of disadvantaged consumers. In 1992 he received an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship, which allowed him to take a year off from working at the newspaper to write on businesses that market to low-income and minority consumers. As a result, he wrote several articles for other major publications, including The New York Times. He was awarded the John Hancock Award for financial journalism, the Sidney Hillman Memorial Award for social justice reporting, and the Investment Company Institute/American University Award for personal finance reporting. In 2006, he became a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He is currently a senior investigator for the Center for Responsible Lending and is writing a book on the rise and fall of the subprime market.