If This Guy’s Going Broke, is There Hope for the Rest of Us?
Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times economics reporter, has written about the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan for the last six years. Before that, he covered the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Russia meltdown in 1998 and the dot-com collapse in 2000. He knows a little somethng about money, markets, and big time financial meltdowns.
In this week’s Times magazine, he writes about his own. And it makes you kind of wonder, if this guy is headed toward financial ruin, is there any hope for the rest of us?
Why? How? In his words:
As for me, I had two utterly compelling reasons for taking the plunge [and buying a house he could not afford]:
the money was there, and I was in love. It was August 2004, just as the
mortgage party was getting really good. I was 48 years old and eager to
start a new chapter in my life with Patricia Barreiro, who was then my
fianc
I reminds me of the song “I’m Busted” as sung by Aunt Effy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HSu00C2CO8
This guy was nothing more than a glorified renter…but he paid far more than any sane renter would.
It’s a very compelling article. And it ends with the detail that Andrews and his wife, pictured in front of the house they re-fi’d three times and cannot afford, have not made a mortgage payment in 8 MONTHS. But JPMorgan Chase is so busy with so many other defaulting “owners” that Andrews hasn’t even received a notice.