This is disturbing – although not that surprising given the times we live in – on two levels (well, more than two, but two BIG levels):
(1) This guy is probably far more financially literate than the average home buyer over the last five years (with all that implies), and more importantly,
(2) His job is to understand finance and yet he has no problem whatsoever – no sense of shame or embarrassment at all – in sharing his story of idiocy with the world. Yeah, I know he’s hawking his book and will make some money from this, but… in days of yore his story would have been so unusual, bizarre and shameful, that he would do anything to hide its reality. Instead, it’s so commonplace, that he clearly feels that there will be no reputational damage whatsoever (that is, folks won’t scratch their heads reading future stories saying, “Why should I read this guy’s stories – he’s a financial idiot”).
(2) is by far the more disturbing element of this story. Shame is dead.
