Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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September 6, 2007 9:46 AM
The Single Most Offensive Economic Article I've Read. Ever.
This article by Michael Lewis might be the single most offensive article on economic issues I've read. Ever.* Lewis is a writer for Establishment megaphones like the New York Times magazine and Slate - and his article is a good glimpse into how our elite media really looks at working class America...and of course, Lewis doesn't bother to once consider that maybe - just maybe - he just made a bunch of bad investments.
* The article is so completely offensive, I'm willing to hold out the possibility that it it is a horrific attempt at satire - one that fails miserably. But I can't tell. What do you think?
UPDATE: Ok, I think it's satire. Bad satire, but satire. Maybe I just have a bad sense of humor.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
I would guess the article is satire.
How can the article be anything but satire? It's pretty good, too, if you ask me.
Well, Michael Lewis has shown that there is no such thing as a free market or else why would he need an SEC to prevent poor people from getting access to his golden hedge funds? Someone please take a gun and shoot him or run him over with a truck !
I trusted these people to get their teams of lawyers to vet anything before they signed it.
Heh.
Quoting from the article, "The media is now making my generosity out to be some kind of scandal. Teaser rates weren't a scandal. Teaser rates were a sign of misplaced trust: I trusted these (poor, as in economically disadvantaged) people to get their teams of lawyers to vet anything before they signed it."
"Teams of lawyers." Right.
Which is clearly "irony," which tells me Lewis's article is intended to lampoon the idiot investors who were willing to accept the risks when they made loans but who now expect the taxpayers (i.e. "us") to bail them out. Which we likely will, because that's the way things are done.
Privatizing profit while socializing risk is a very shrewd business strategy, when it can be pulled off. The insurance industry does it every day. With impunity. As did the Savings and Loan industry not long ago. Why not the subprime mortgage industry? Who, exactly, is going to stop them?
If you want to learn something about the cancer forming in American economics and why we are becoming a corporate fascism run by greed ridden predatory bankers watch this it will explain so much of why we are on the edge of the abyss..
Brasschecktv Money as Debt:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/135.html
I know J.S. Mill agrees..
It's worth every minute..
Its first rate satire, reminds me the folks who write for the Dailyreckoning.
Its first rate satire and funny as hell, look anyone with a bit of sense knew the housing boom based on terrible lending practices was going to blow up big time and take a lot of fools with it.
I saw it comming over a year ago and so did a lot of other people who saw how the whole thing was financed. Not to mention that nothing goes up forever.
As one living near the center of the coming house implosion I think its a good thing. Its going to flush out a lot of people who had no business in a house and the Trump wannabes as well.
Prices need to come back down dramatically. There is no reason why a 50 year old shack in North Hollywood, CA should go a half-million or a adobe house in the Mojave desert for $250,000.
The no money down mortages were a disaster for a lot of suburbs. It allowed con-artits, scum bags, illegal aliens, gang bangers and all sorts of low lifes to get into a house. What a lot of these people did was to make a few payments then live in the house and thrash it until they were evicted. Basically 6-9 months free rent.
And made life hell on the people who actually are decent and house proud.
No, you have a great sense of humor. It is just that this article is only one hair over the top of what objectivists, libertarians, and less (and much less) intellectual Reagan worshippers believe -- that there is no such thing as maldistribution of wealth.
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