Ed Glaeser is Just plain wrong

Not much to say about it, but I read this in the NYT a few days back and it stuck with me.  First, I work in the lending industry, and quite frankly, no, he has very little of it correctly. That's not news. I mean, when the guy starts out by calling federal incentives that aren't even a tenth of the cost "bribes" and ends with calling for a special tax just for being poor, you know we're not dealing with either praxis or theory, we're dealing with a political screed . But the thing that sticks with me is here is an adjunct at Harvard, suckling on endowments and grants to be at the most overpriced institution of higher learning in the country who is writing in some kind of gadfly role at the best newspaper in the country, and the best he has is something that Newt Gingrich wouldn't have bothered with, 15 years ago? Gads, but the standards have sunk...

Anyway, just to clarify, two things: one there's more than just "social" costs to foreclosure to both the lender and the mortgagor. He's conveniently mislabelling and forgetting 1099 forms and bringing up legislation that is not in place, as of yet (Hey, we're barely getting into  either the Hope Now programs and the Hope for Homeowners program. The Making home affordable isn't completed, yet, and not all Mortgages can avail themselves to it.

Theives and liars abound, kiddies....