Confessions of a Economics Journalist

oceanclub

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html?pagewanted=1&em

Confessional piece here by a NYT journo who admits even they were sucked into the bubble.

If there was anybody who should have avoided the mortgage catastrophe, it was I. As an economics reporter for The New York Times, I have been the paper’s chief eyes and ears on the Federal Reserve for the past six years. I watched Alan Greenspan and his successor, Ben S. Bernanke, at close range. I wrote several early-warning articles in 2004 about the spike in go-go mortgages. Before that, I had a hand in covering the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Russia meltdown in 1998 and the dot-com collapse in 2000. I know a lot about the curveballs that the economy can throw at us.

But in 2004, I joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages. Nobody duped or hypnotized me. Like so many others — borrowers, lenders and the Wall Street dealmakers behind them — I just thought I could beat the odds.

P.

oflahero

oceanclub wrote: »

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html?pagewanted=1&em

Confessional piece here by a NYT journo who admits even they were sucked into the bubble.



P.

Criminey. That's real shivers-down-the-spine stuff. Should be required reading. Pity it's not syndicated to one of the nationals here.

Can't see it appearing in the IT property supplement any time soon, though.

helimachoptor

A really really good read

Xiney

And yet again, I'm reminded that there are always others worse off.

harsea8

Xiney wrote: »

And yet again, I'm reminded that there are always others worse off.

My thoughts exactly....In fact, all I could think whilst I was reading it was "Jees, I made some financial mistakes over the last few years, but I at least I wasn't that bloody stupid"

P.S. The scariest part for me was how much alimony he was paying his ex-wife...$4000 a month:eek:

Xiney

yeah, 4 grand a month is pretty crazy alright.

I suppose she must have been a housewife/sahm and so now he's forced to support her in the way she is accustomed, or whatever.

IIMII

I'd go on the dole

2Scoops

Hard to feel sorry for him, tbh. Living beyond his means big-time. Is an 'economics journalist' more a journalist than an economist? :pac:

blah

It's obvious from the article (although it wasn't to the author at the time) that he stretched himself way beyond his means. Aside from the fact that he spent $460,000 on house when his wife had no job and he had a stepdaughter to support and he only earned $2,700 after alimony and child support, their day to day costs were massive, with things like $700 on clothes and $700 on flights being slapped on the credit card (not to mention food and petrol). Seems like he was in denial that he couldn't afford this standard of living. Just because "Bob" will loan you the money to finance it doesn't mean that you should accept it.

jimmycrackcorm

I actually thought that his problem was less to do with the property price he paid and more about his complete lack of financial management.