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Old 05-15-2009, 03:03 PM   #21
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Wow - twenty posts so far on this thread and nobody's mentioned:

Pace Picante Sauce yet.



heh heh heh -
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Old 05-15-2009, 03:26 PM   #22
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It is shocking that an economic reporter did not know better. When you sign the loan documents, you should know that you can repay the loan. He knew from the start that this was not possible. The mortgage broker was just looking for his fees so he did not care. The lender was counting on home prices continuing to increase in value. This is why the system broke.
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Old 05-15-2009, 03:57 PM   #23
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Another fine example of why the newspaper of record has such a crappy record recently. Many NY Times reporters suffer from delusions that they deserve to live in the same lifestyle as the rich and famous people they cover.

It is easy to find the dream house if you ignore the price tag. Now admittedly the loan broker was a border line crook and the lenders were remarkably stupid, but the end of the time he is responsible for living well beyond his means. I don't feel to sorry for the guy because he did get to live for 5 years in a great house and I am guessing ultimately will be living rent free for a year, at taxpayer expense.

I fortunately have no first hand knowledge of divorce, but doesn't a $4,000 alimony payment seem very excessive based on his salary?
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Old 05-15-2009, 04:33 PM   #24
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I fortunately have no first hand knowledge of divorce, but doesn't a $4,000 alimony payment seem very excessive based on his salary?
Not necessarily. A big chunk is probably child support. The remainder would be alimony. In my local jurisdiction, they base alimony on "the manner in which one is accustomed to living". So assuming him and his first wife were spending 2-3x their disposable income before and living on debt (which seems to be a good bet), then he would presumably be on the hook for that in the form of alimony, subject to judicial discretion of course. Not sure about the laws of his jurisdiction, whichever that might be.
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Old 05-15-2009, 06:15 PM   #25
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Read this story yesterday and it made me sick. This is the type of greedy fool my tax dollars are bailing out. I find the entitlement-mentality of people like him jaw-dropping.

Gee, I guess all those years as a worldly New York Times reporter didn't open his eyes enough to the fact that maybe, just maybe, it'd be possible to live somewhere other than Silver Spring MD, and that most of humanity gets by just fine without Starbucks, "top quality produce, bottled juices, fresh cheeses, and clothing" (JCrew and GAP Kids), and rented beach houses.

Cry me a friggin' river with his liar loan -- he knew exactly what he was doing. He's not the only guy who ever fell in love and wanted nice things for his family. He's just a highly educated guy with a sense of entitlement about how he and his should be entitled to enjoy the finer things in life.

Effing disgusting.
I agree 100%. I hope for his kids that the book deal gets them out of this financial mess. And that the NYT provides him with a good life insurance policy, cuz I have a sneaking suspicion somebody might target him for a drive-by shooting. The article and the book are going to give a lot of people who are in bad financial straits due to no fault of their own an obvious target for their legitimate anger. Arrogance, entitlement and just plain stupidity like this and who ends up holding the bill? Disgusting indeed.

I bet his first wife is glad to be rid of him. Wonder if she's still collecting alimony.

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Old 05-15-2009, 06:25 PM   #26
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I got pretty p*ssed off reading this too. I bought a home at almost the same time, about 10 miles north of Silver Spring in fact, and like him I was in love at the time, and like him the mortgage broker told me I could easily get approved for $400-$450K, no money down. I had negative assets at the time, and my income after taxes was about $4K a month and there was no way I could afford that kind of mortgage, so I bought a townhome for $250K which was in my budget.

So I lived responsibly, and he lived recklessly, and now he's living rent-free and waiting for "the system" to save him?

Gimme a break... Though I bet he's not unique at all. Maybe some people really do need to be protected from themselves?
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Old 05-15-2009, 07:14 PM   #27
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"I had assumed we would start by renting a house or an apartment, but it quickly became clear that it was almost easier to borrow a half-million dollars and buy something"

Wow.... easier to borrow a half-million than rent - I actually believe it.
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Old 05-15-2009, 09:40 PM   #28
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"....And we saw how our children were thriving. My three sons transferred to schools in our neighborhood and made scores of friends. Emily, Patty’s daughter, was a sparkling 10-year-old who loved her home and her school as well as all her brothers. ..."

I don't see how this tell-all article could be very helpful to the children's well being.
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Old 05-15-2009, 10:22 PM   #29
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This reporter comitted knowing fraud in his application for a mortgage. He is not some rube who didn't know what he was doing, he was fully cognizant of all the implications. To this day he is trying to run a scam to stay in that house. That our tax money is going to save people who perptrated this level of crime in order to get a house is beyond belief.

I felt dirty even reading his story, I was afraid he might be being paid by the click.
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Old 05-16-2009, 03:34 AM   #30
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Amazon.com: Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown: Edmund L. Andrews: Books

The guy is not getting a whole lot of love over at Amazon in the comment section. You can buy his book for a little over $17. It is also available on kindle if your so inclined. I'm keeping my money.
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Old 05-16-2009, 07:18 AM   #31
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... I'm keeping my money.
Think I'll keep mine also. His wife wanted to keep house and buy organic veggies for the kids rather than work and contribute to the household financially? Don't we all. Then she didn't want her birthday ruined by all that nasty talk about bills? As someone said earlier, cry me a river.
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Old 05-16-2009, 08:21 AM   #32
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Think I'll keep mine also. His wife wanted to keep house and buy organic veggies for the kids rather than work and contribute to the household financially? Don't we all. Then she didn't want her birthday ruined by all that nasty talk about bills? As someone said earlier, cry me a river.
Correction: his wife did work and had an editorial position paying $60K until the recession hit and she was laid off.

This couple seems more typically American upper middle class than the folks on this board. But I'm not criticizing you all. I started hanging out here because I admire the financial sense expressed by the posters here. I was raised to LBYM and I lived that way most of my life, especially as a single mother putting myself through college and graduate school.

But when people remarry sometimes they want everything to be better than in their previous marriage so they go overboard trying to please their new partner. I've not experienced this but have witnessed it. And this author fits the picture. It's too bad that his actions had the exact opposite effect of his intention.
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Old 05-16-2009, 08:39 AM   #33
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I agree 100%. I hope for his kids that the book deal gets them out of this financial mess. And that the NYT provides him with a good life insurance policy, cuz I have a sneaking suspicion somebody might target him for a drive-by shooting. The article and the book are going to give a lot of people who are in bad financial straits due to no fault of their own an obvious target for their legitimate anger. Arrogance, entitlement and just plain stupidity like this and who ends up holding the bill? Disgusting indeed.

I bet his first wife is glad to be rid of him. Wonder if she's still collecting alimony.

lhamo
There is no excuse for what this idiot did, and he's supposedly a financial reporter, how is that even possible? Why on earth would anyone buy a book from someone so clueless? Disgusting...
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Old 05-16-2009, 08:41 AM   #34
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But when people remarry sometimes they want everything to be better than in their previous marriage so they go overboard trying to please their new partner. I've not experienced this but have witnessed it.
Sounds like it might be fun to experience this!

I heard this guy interviewed on NPR yesterday afternoon as I was Happy Hour bound. IMO, a jerk all the way. I like upper middle class people who have some class. This Dude is a whiner and a weenie. The interviewer (can't remember his name, a guy with an annoying patronizing voice) seemed to buy his line all the way. He was in love..... I've been in love. Other than leading me to get married I don't remember that is made me stupid.

Hello, if they are in love all they need is a baby sitter and a strong bedstead and some eats in the fridge. Oh yeah, and some chicharrones and Pace Picante sauce in case the UncleM stops by.
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Old 05-16-2009, 09:56 AM   #35
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This reporter is a classic case of over educated, under informed in spite of the wealth of info at his fingertips. By the way, does anyone miss his insightful reporting? Did anyone notice his column was missing? I did not think so.

Can't find any sympathy for his travails. Surely I wold not spend any money on his book, certainly will pass on reading it even from the library.

I do think he should get a job with a company cleaning out toilets and septic tanks. That could show him the proper appreciation of economics, in particular for input vs output, and misdirected efforts especially in public venues.
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Old 05-16-2009, 10:12 AM   #36
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One lesson is that this is an economic writer for the NYT- that says something. Basically, if he can not understand his economic circumstances how can he understand macro economic issues.

As I said before - he is average for the people I've met in the TV news business - just average Joes - doing below average jobs.

About 15 years ago I was dealing with a TV network reporter who did some economic stories - he didn't understand how he was 30K in credit card debt. Now he does those internet child predator stories.

So my advise - when you read or watch any news story - look for the errors.

Remember news organizations are like factories - turning out stories as fast as they can. There isn't any independent quality control orgaization that regulates them. Imagine a meat processing plant without any inspections. That is what we are getting from news organizations.
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Old 05-16-2009, 01:27 PM   #37
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Correction: his wife did work and had an editorial position paying $60K until the recession hit and she was laid off.
That's correct except that if you will notice, the wife didn't work until the first "We're out of money" episode. Per the author, wife had been a sahm since the 80s, and had trouble re-entering the job market.

As a mom myself, I know all about taking kiddo to daycare and hauling your tail to work, but I believed keeping a roof over son's head was worth the sacrifice. Hence, I don't feel much sympathy for those who choose the alternative and find themselves in financial trouble.
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Old 05-16-2009, 11:08 PM   #38
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Yes, this idiotic reporter was in love. However, he did realize the hellhole he got himself in, but could not get his newfound love to accept that they were up to their eyebrows in deep doodoo. He understood that they were in trouble, but she thought it was petty and small-minded to worry about little things like money.

Same as ls99, I won't even bother to check out his book from the library, leave alone buying it. I only wonder how he could still stay with this woman. Perhaps they deserve each other.

I have known some couples like this. The women didn't care how the checks bounced; it was the husbands' duty to replenish the account as fast as they could spend. And the husbands were simply too wimpy to put their feet down. I will say again that they deserve each other.

We didn’t have enough cash to cover more than a week’s worth of groceries and gasoline. For the last few months we were living off the cash left over after I sold my Times stock and we bought the house. But now it was gone.

“How the hell could we have run through so much money so quickly?” I asked her accusingly.

Patty wasn’t sharing my shock. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she responded.

...

“You lied to me,” she told me as I got coffee. “You said that what I saw on the outside was pretty much what you were. But you’re completely different. If I had known what you were really like, I would never have come out here.”

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Old 05-17-2009, 12:28 AM   #39
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We didn’t have enough cash to cover more than a week’s worth of groceries and gasoline. For the last few months we were living off the cash left over after I sold my Times stock and we bought the house. But now it was gone.
“How the hell could we have run through so much money so quickly?” I asked her accusingly.

Patty wasn’t sharing my shock. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she responded.

...

“You lied to me,” she told me as I got coffee. “You said that what I saw on the outside was pretty much what you were. But you’re completely different. If I had known what you were really like, I would never have come out here.”
Pouring gasoline on the gender wars?

Some of these topics are poking a stick in a hornets' nest. Until you bothered it you never knew what fury was in that apparently peaceful structure.

Ha
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Old 05-17-2009, 05:15 AM   #40
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No need for a gender war here. NW-Bound is just pointing out that Mr. NYT's brains were below his belt when he got into this mess and now he's paying for that. Mr. NYT admits as much. As far as his lady fair goes. Well the charm of cute and clueless wears off fast when the tough times come. There are hundreds of men who have learned that lesson the hard way. Just like some of us females learn that Mr. Bad boy or Mr. Dreamer are no prizes either.
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