Comments on: No one knew the crash was coming except the people who knew

By: BTC News: If It Says ‘News,’ It Must Be True » Blog Archive » The single biggest bit of graft since the Soviet Union was sold

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:25:51 +0000

[...] being ridiculed are the ones standing up to say that it doesn’t make sense. And the press wonder how they miss the big [...]

By: Weldon Berger

Weldon Berger — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:01:55 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, Montag.

Regarding the people who were right, the whole point of the end-of-year self-flagellation orgies is to avoid at all costs any suggestion of systemic problems, which is to say that every blown story is the result of a specific failing that can be pointed to and dismissed as a one-time thing. Acknowledging people who were waving a giant story in their collective face is something the press would prefer not to do because it raises the questions they wish to avoid. < end pedantry. >

By: Montag

Montag — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:08:14 +0000

But trust me, they will not receive prominent mention during the post-mortem discussions.

yeah, cause who wants to listen to some smug asshole come on and say “i told you so,” now?

(i’m being facetious here, of course.)

i really appreciate this site, Weldon, keep up all the good work.

By: Weldon Berger

Weldon Berger — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:23:23 +0000

Montag, there were a few analysts and other institutional critics sounding the alarms four or five years ago, but newspapers were loathe to quote them. I remember reading some bloggers who were predicting famine and plague around then as well, as in “if we don’t act now, the floods will come.” So, yeah, it’s one of those things: no one could have predicted the levees would fail except the people who repeatedly and loudly did so. But trust me, they will not receive prominent mention during the post-mortem discussions.

Keifus, that has promise: breezy yet meaningful, sort of.

By: Montag

Montag — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:33:13 +0000

i noticed housing prices were getting outrageous in my area 8 years ago, and saw trouble brewing two or three years ago when i was hearing radio advertisements for 50 year mortgages, and ‘interest only’ mortgages, and watched my friend take out one of those ARMs. i had wanted to blog about it then, but didn’t due to time constraints.

what’s the line here? i don’t think anybody could have anticipated the breaching of the levees?