On the money
As we move closer to worldwide recession, may I point you at James Surowiecki's summation of America's home loan crisis in the New Yorker - ie. that which seems to be kicking it all off. The piece is helpfully online here. I don't really get global economics, but if anyone's going to help me understand, it's James Surowiecki. He writes The Financial Page for the New Yorker every week. That's every week. In all the time I've been getting the magazine, nobody else to my knowledge has ever filled in for him. He never goes on holiday. Or if he does, he writes two columns in advance, so certain is he that without his clear, concise, usually entertaining bulletin from the fiscal coalface, hundreds of thousands of us would be walking about, baffled and lost. Even though the New Yorker is online - and can be purchased in CD-ROM form, going back to its first issue in 1925 - I have been keeping my new issues, in cardboard files, for the past three years. Actually, I'm about to recycle the lot, as they're taking up way too much shelf-space and I don't need them (don't mention e-Bay, it's not worth the hassle), but it tells you a lot how much I value the stimulation this publication gives me. It feels wrong to throw it away. I will though, from now on, but the likes of Surowiecki, in this one-page piece, are why I love it so.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 4:25 PM
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9 Comments:
Facing the same angst with my back issues of Q (early 90s), Empire (ditto), Private Eye (late 80s) and, naturally, (The) Word. Its not easy...
You had a big clearout a year or so ago. Any tips? Any regrets about stuff you wished you'd kept?
..i just love that illustration too
Andrew - I've now read the New Yorker article and its very interesting to read a US perspective. Evan Davis' "Evanomics" blog at the BBC website is worth a read and includes the following gem:
One colleague suggested to me today – rather acutely - that housing market cycles last eleven years, while our memories last nine. There is always a two year silly frenzy that has to be undone.
(Sadly his last blog entry as he's taking up a role with the Today Programme)
Having sailed close to negative equity in the early 90s I'm astounded at how the housing market has found its way back to the same craziness.
Jon Ronson once investigated the methods used to offer cheap credit in the UK and spoke to one of the key advisors to the first Thatcher government. His view was that 70s banking practices were stifling economic growth and that making money more freely available was vital. Hence the need to save for 20%+ deposits started to disappear. Ronson's interview showed that the current situation was far from what the guy had had in mind and he was shocked at what was going on today. It would be interesting to know whether the US position has its seeds in the early Reagan days.
You're going to throw them away? Say it ain't so!
David Mackinder - are you saying you want them?
David Jockney - the clearout I did the year before last was invigorating. I had every Q, pretty much every Empire, and so on. A glance at eBay told me not to bother trying to sell them, so I recycled them. I plan to recycle my New Yorkers. I don't regret a single issue. I kept back all the Qs and Empires I'd actually worked on as Editor, and went through them ripping out stuff I'd written (which is easy to store). I don't even keep Word. The advantage of getting all that shelf space back far outweighs the possibility that you might want to read something from September 1997, believe me. (Oh, by the way, if I had a massive house with endless shelf space, I'd have kept them all. It was a practical decision, but one that really gives you a purge.)
My treehugger side wonders if you can donate your back issues, so they can be reused before being recycled. Not sure if anyone wants to read a magazine that's more than a few weeks old, but maybe a hospital would be able to take them. Or if you want to find a taker online, try Craigslist.org or Freecycle.org, where you can post things you're giving away. Perhaps someone would take them off your hands just for the cartoons? And yes, James Surowiecki knows his stuff. Almost makes me feel I can understood some facets of economics. But not quite.
I am taking out a loan against equity on my house in order to build an extension to store all of my Richard Herring memorabilia. How ironic.
Not sure if you do requests, but I'd love to see a blog post about this, Andrew:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7314531.stm
How spooky - must be an Easter weekend / Spring cleaning thing. After years of putting it off, I decided this weekend to get rid of all my Q's, about 200 or so.
I thought I might mark them, leave them lying around in train station waiting rooms and suchlike, then wait and see if any fly back home again.
If I found a New Yorker lying around somewhere, I know I'd read it.
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