Megan McArdle posts Edmund Andrews' response to her revelation of his wife's bankruptcies. Megan concludes:
On a very broad note, I don't see this as a story about the goodness or badness of Andrews or Barreiro--and I've been dismayed by some of the nastiness about her in comments here and elsewhere. Rather, I think this matters because the story Andrews told was basically about the subprime crisis, and the book casts him as a sort of everyman, lured in by cheap credit and a likeable scoundrel of a mortgage broker. That may be what happened to many, or most people in the mortgage crisis--but the back to back bankruptcies strongly suggest that this is not what happened to Andrews. That said, I think the story told with the bankruptcies included would still be a story well worth telling.
As Megan notes, even if Patty's bankruptcies weren't relevant, he should have brought them up to show they weren't relevant.
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I suspect Steve Sailer is already on the case, but I doubt he will be as charitable as Megan.
What's interesting to me is how much more quicker lying or shading of the truth is discovered and attacked in the Internet Age. Will easily accessible & searchable information stored on Youtube or crawled by Google affect politicians' behavior at all, or will we rachet down our definition of the "gaffe" or "scandal"? He invited this attention upon himself when sought to profit from his pathetic story, but even if he were a completely sympathetic character, it's a bit arresting to think that there are a bunch of partisan sleuths scouring through the public record to cast aspersion upon this guy, and tangentially the NYT, by airing out any sort of personal dirty laundry from his past.
Megan M said: "I don't see this as a story about the goodness or badness of Andrews or Barreiro--and I've been dismayed by some of the nastiness about her in comments here and elsewhere."
I find this attitude of Megan M itself to be a despicable bit of high IQ moral grandstanding. This comment is an advertisment that she is *above* making simple, crude, moral judgments about honesty, like lesser people do. To her, morality is irrelevant - she's a technocrat, dammit! Indeed, according to Megan, it is the people who make moral judgments about the wrongdoing of others who are the nasty ones.
Pah!
NYT public editor takes note:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/opinion/24pubed.html
"... and people like himself who made foolish choices."'
"He is too close to that story"
"Still, he should have revealed the second one, if only to head off the criticism."
I think these snips from the full story would make great review blurbs for the jacket. Certainly, they are much kinder that the Amazon and B&N reviews...
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,272 in Books
BK docs where posted to scribd today for anyone interested, pretty damn sad to stiff your own sister for $29k in a bankruptcy.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15752959/Patricia-Barreiro-Sisson-1998-Bankru…
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15752809/Patricia-Barreiro-2007-Bankruptcy-Fi…
Two points:
1. Money is fungible, so of course the prior bankruptices were relevant. Why wasn't the first priority to send money to repay his wife's own sister rather than buying a new house and all this stuff?
2. How funny that this deadbeat complains bitterly about his wife's ex-husband, who evidently never paid his bills either!
The New York Times: written by crack addicts like David Carr and deadbeats like Edmund Andrews.
What? He wrote a book about his own credit crisis, but omitted pertinent facts. Facts that are easily found in public records--it's not like McArdle needed a court order to access this stuff.
Reminds me of that accident report in the Onion -
"See, usually, the vehicle's sudden-braking skid marks don't start a mere six feet from the concrete pillar," Mills said. "Usually, the vehicle doesn't have a gas tank held to its frame by a bungee cord and two leather belts. And, in almost all cases, the driver isn't halfway through the windshield with a half-bottle of Everclear grain alcohol in one hand and an electric nose-hair trimmer in the other."
Didn't know "fine cheeses" could lead to credit card abuse,mismanagement of funds, bankruptcy and foreclosure.
I applaud Megan McArdelâs reportage. If for no other reason, itâs part of the American experience and a prerogative and duty of the Fourth Estate.
Also, it goes without saying that the Andrewsâ were the authors of their own dollar demise.
My problem is that many posters seem to regale in the Andrews familyâs financial failure. Thereâs a German word that expresses this cruel and selfish disposition, âShadenfreude.â Since I know most Americans are monolingual, youâre going to have to look it up.
I say, let him who is without financial sin cast the first phony Federal Reserve note. I say we are all to blame â cumulative guiltâ¦so to speak.
DR â An American in Bangkok