My Personal Credit Crisis

[patientrenter]

Shame is dead. Indeed. When choices had to be made on how to manage through this latest recession, moral hazard was weighed against pain avoidance. Remember when moral hazard was a live issue? That’s long gone. Everyone decided we needed to “save our economy”, aka “hit the restart button”. This is what happens when you make that choice.

[Ricechex]

[quote=davelj]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.

[/quote]

Davelj, you make such a good point. I would also use the term poor boundaries. We live in a boundary-less world. At his age, I would think he would have had more sense.

[Ricechex]

[quote=davelj]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.

[/quote]

Davelj, you make such a good point. I would also use the term poor boundaries. We live in a boundary-less world. At his age, I would think he would have had more sense.

[Ricechex]

[quote=davelj]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.

[/quote]

Davelj, you make such a good point. I would also use the term poor boundaries. We live in a boundary-less world. At his age, I would think he would have had more sense.

[Ricechex]

[quote=davelj]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.

[/quote]

Davelj, you make such a good point. I would also use the term poor boundaries. We live in a boundary-less world. At his age, I would think he would have had more sense.

[Ricechex]

[quote=davelj]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.

[/quote]

Davelj, you make such a good point. I would also use the term poor boundaries. We live in a boundary-less world. At his age, I would think he would have had more sense.

[briansd1]

I also agree w/ you davelj, shame is dead.

Better to come clean before a blogger finds out about it and calls him on it.

For a local story and about journalists…. I remember Scott Lewis of Voice of San Diego, while quoting Lew Breeze (a local Realtor), disclosing that Mr. Breeze was his Realtor; so I’m assuming that Scott Lewis bought downtown. And we all know how the peak buyers Downtown are doing.

VOSD still quotes from Lew Breeze who himself is underwater on his condos. Time will tell if any of them go to foreclosure…..

[briansd1]

I also agree w/ you davelj, shame is dead.

Better to come clean before a blogger finds out about it and calls him on it.

For a local story and about journalists…. I remember Scott Lewis of Voice of San Diego, while quoting Lew Breeze (a local Realtor), disclosing that Mr. Breeze was his Realtor; so I’m assuming that Scott Lewis bought downtown. And we all know how the peak buyers Downtown are doing.

VOSD still quotes from Lew Breeze who himself is underwater on his condos. Time will tell if any of them go to foreclosure…..

[briansd1]

I also agree w/ you davelj, shame is dead.

Better to come clean before a blogger finds out about it and calls him on it.

For a local story and about journalists…. I remember Scott Lewis of Voice of San Diego, while quoting Lew Breeze (a local Realtor), disclosing that Mr. Breeze was his Realtor; so I’m assuming that Scott Lewis bought downtown. And we all know how the peak buyers Downtown are doing.

VOSD still quotes from Lew Breeze who himself is underwater on his condos. Time will tell if any of them go to foreclosure…..

[briansd1]

I also agree w/ you davelj, shame is dead.

Better to come clean before a blogger finds out about it and calls him on it.

For a local story and about journalists…. I remember Scott Lewis of Voice of San Diego, while quoting Lew Breeze (a local Realtor), disclosing that Mr. Breeze was his Realtor; so I’m assuming that Scott Lewis bought downtown. And we all know how the peak buyers Downtown are doing.

VOSD still quotes from Lew Breeze who himself is underwater on his condos. Time will tell if any of them go to foreclosure…..

[briansd1]

I also agree w/ you davelj, shame is dead.

Better to come clean before a blogger finds out about it and calls him on it.

For a local story and about journalists…. I remember Scott Lewis of Voice of San Diego, while quoting Lew Breeze (a local Realtor), disclosing that Mr. Breeze was his Realtor; so I’m assuming that Scott Lewis bought downtown. And we all know how the peak buyers Downtown are doing.

VOSD still quotes from Lew Breeze who himself is underwater on his condos. Time will tell if any of them go to foreclosure…..

[alarmclock]

Without exception, the (male) house fools that I personally know were driven by their wives/gfs to nest in an overpriced house during the boom. I don’t dispute that the men were 50/50 complicit in the decision, but fundamentally the rush to get one before they are all gone was driven by the women (again this is just my personal experience). I am grateful that my stubborness and my wife’s house apathy allowed us to wait, as I probably would have given in just like everyone else.

So the line that stood out for me is this: “Patty discovered a small but stately brick home in a leafy, kid-filled neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md. We sent in an offer of $460,000 and one day later got our answer: the sellers accepted. ”

[alarmclock]

Without exception, the (male) house fools that I personally know were driven by their wives/gfs to nest in an overpriced house during the boom. I don’t dispute that the men were 50/50 complicit in the decision, but fundamentally the rush to get one before they are all gone was driven by the women (again this is just my personal experience). I am grateful that my stubborness and my wife’s house apathy allowed us to wait, as I probably would have given in just like everyone else.

So the line that stood out for me is this: “Patty discovered a small but stately brick home in a leafy, kid-filled neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md. We sent in an offer of $460,000 and one day later got our answer: the sellers accepted. ”

[alarmclock]

Without exception, the (male) house fools that I personally know were driven by their wives/gfs to nest in an overpriced house during the boom. I don’t dispute that the men were 50/50 complicit in the decision, but fundamentally the rush to get one before they are all gone was driven by the women (again this is just my personal experience). I am grateful that my stubborness and my wife’s house apathy allowed us to wait, as I probably would have given in just like everyone else.

So the line that stood out for me is this: “Patty discovered a small but stately brick home in a leafy, kid-filled neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md. We sent in an offer of $460,000 and one day later got our answer: the sellers accepted. ”

[alarmclock]

Without exception, the (male) house fools that I personally know were driven by their wives/gfs to nest in an overpriced house during the boom. I don’t dispute that the men were 50/50 complicit in the decision, but fundamentally the rush to get one before they are all gone was driven by the women (again this is just my personal experience). I am grateful that my stubborness and my wife’s house apathy allowed us to wait, as I probably would have given in just like everyone else.

So the line that stood out for me is this: “Patty discovered a small but stately brick home in a leafy, kid-filled neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md. We sent in an offer of $460,000 and one day later got our answer: the sellers accepted. ”

[Author]

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