On the politics of subprime and sex party houses….
I’ve been down in Bradenton, Florida the past few days where I started my career as a journalist. After spending the weekend walking door to door to get out the vote for Barack Obama, I’m now turning my attention to reporting and plan to attend the daily 11 a.m. foreclosure sale run by the Manatee County Clerk.
There’s about 20 homes on the block today and one of the things that jumped out at me is that some of these were for pretty hefty sums — $750K and higher — which means that it’s hard to chalk this up to a problem with poor people being in over their heads as some in Congress seem to want to blame. A quick skim of Countrywide’s foreclosures for Florida — something that I first began tracking in August 2007, shows that there’s now over 2,300, a nearly four-fold increase from the 588 back then.
And, for those footnoted regulars who are interested, I drove by the infamous sex party house, which locals tell me actually wound up selling for around $650K, compared with the $1.1 million Countrywide foreclosed on it for. And I couldn’t help but chuckle at the McCain Palin signs displayed prominently outside. Glad to know that the Arizona Senator can count on the people who buy sex party houses for a song demographic!
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November 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Please leave the cheap political stuff at home. There are plenty of sites that bash both sides if I want to read that stuff. I didn’t expect it and I don’t particularly appreciate it here. Frankly I’m surprised and, honestly, disappointed that you felt the need to take such a cheap shot.
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Shame on you footnoted–to link an inanimate house and the opinions of its new owners to something that occurred in the past of which the new buyers might have been totally ignorant.
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Sorry to see footnoted link an inanimate house and the opinions of its new owners to something that occurred in the past of which the new buyers might have been totally ignorant.
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Hi Michelle,
Just wanted to say that I’ve started reading your blog. I’m wondering if you have heard about the book, “What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business”. I heard the guy (Chris Flett) on the Today Show and thought you probably have already heard of him. I’m wondering what your thoughts were. He seems to be really taking on the ‘Old Boys Club”. I just emailed him, but haven’t heard back.
Anyway, keep up the great writing.
Best,
Bihter.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
You do your site a disservice when you open it to political spin. Remember, around 50% of the country does not see things the way you do. Best not to cut your membership in half.
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I’m not quite sure where to begin, but I’ll start here: This site is all about opinions. While most of them are focused on SEC filings, I occassionally turn to other things. If you want your SEC filings opinion-free, I suggest you start plowing through Edgar. As for thinking that the people who bought the house had no idea of it’s history, that simply defies logic.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I really have enjoyed (note - past tense!) your FOOTNOTE.ORG but…who the HELL gave you the right to inject your PERSONAL political opinions into something that I felt was non-partisan, non-political and CERTAINLY not a platform for YOUR political leanings!
Prior to this I WOULD’VE (note - past tense) been willing to pay for your expertise and opinions but -alas - you screwed up BIG TIME.
I’ll give you this much - for a quick time it’s been enlighting and informative.
ADIOS!
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Keep it coming, Michelle. Your post struck me more as an ironic observation than an aspersion cast upon the Arizona Senator.
Those responding posters just reinforce the argument that holier-than-thou social conservatives have hijacked the Republicans. With any luck the drubbing they are about to receive will restore the socially moderate and fiscally conservative small government wing of the party. It won’t be worse than eight years of irresponsible policy that has come out of Washington with the Repubs in charge.
November 4th, 2008 at 8:33 am
@ Guillaume: Thanks for the support. It was meant to be ironic by pointing out that there’s clear beneficiaries of the subprime crisis. Countrywide may have gone out of business by making hundreds of loans like the one to the sex party house, but clearly the new owner benefited by getting a 9-bedroom waterfront house for a fraction of the price.
@Tom: Clearly you’re not that regular of a reader if you can’t even get the name of the site correct. Good luck reading those Edgar filings
November 4th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
James, Paul, Charlie, Tom,
Your attempts at censorship doesn’t work on the internet (you know, that “series of tubes”?). The writers on footnoted have the right to write whatever the heck they want on their blog with whatever political slant that they please. If you have a problem with that, go somewhere else. You won’t have any problem finding places that panders to your views. Your “50%” won’t be missed.
It’s funny how it’s always little boys who are so easily offended.
Keep up the KICK-ASS work Michelle et al. I would never have the patience trawling through the filings as you guys do.
November 4th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Thanks, JoJo. Appreciate the defense.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Please concentrate on the financial business at hand.
People interested in — and who support — your espoused research, are not remotely interested in your political thinking and conceivably have other political insight than your own. Worse, your comments are cheap at best.
No sense distracting one’s audience with extraneous, off-the-subject, grenades.
Keep your eye on the ball, please.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
@ Bill: My eye is on the ball. But keep in mind that this is my site. Do you agree with every article that you read in the WSJ? Or whatever other sites you visit? Do you contact those writers and tell them that they should only write about a particular subject and preferably the ones that you agree with?
One of the things that amazed me when I was canvassing was how bitter certain people were at the prospect of an Obama Administration. On Monday, I knocked on the door of a 70 year-old woman who came to the door in her bikini and told me that she wouldn’t be voting for “any damn socialist”. And there were these guys who I talked to over lunch on Monday — one of them was named Domenic — who upon seeing my friend’s Obama volunteer name-tag, started spewing the most vile racist crap and then applauded my “passion” when I tried to logically refute their idiotic arguments.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:50 am
My misunderstanding. I thought your blog was dedicated to “original insight and analysis” of SEC filings of interest to “professional money managers and analysts, as well as sophisticated individual investors.”
Political opinion is surely your right — but not my interest.
Good luck, and good bye.