Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. As I write in February 2009, I am four months past due on my mortgage and bracing for foreclosure proceedings to begin. Thus begins this cautionary and critical examination of the housing crisis, a story that turned personal when New York Times economics reporter Andrews got caught up in the housing bubble after falling in love with a woman and a house. Bringing in $120,000 a year in salary—most of which went to child support and alimony to his ex-wife, Andrews says he was able to get a don't ask, don't tell mortgage with the assumption that his new wife, Patty, would be able to get a job to keep them afloat, an expectation that didn't work out as planned. Because of his economics journalism background, Andrews says he should have avoided the mortgage catastrophe, and he castigates himself as well as fellow borrowers, the financial industry that took advantage of them and a government that didn't put the brakes on the crisis that many economists warned about but that Alan Greenspan, the Bush administration and others ignored. This deeply personal exposé is timely and sobering in its candor. (June)
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Review

A fascinating meditation on the experience of the crisis from the point of view of those facing foreclosure. (David Warsh - Economic Principals )

Andrews uses his travails as a prism for viewing the forces behind the bubble. . . . Step by step, he investigates the institutions that gave him the rope with which to hang himself. (James Pressley - Bloomberg )

Andrews’s autopsy on his mortgage and the conditions that helped produce it is sharp and at times mordantly funny. (Tom Vanderbilt - The New York Times Book Review )

Provides important information on the recent mortgage debacle and the hazards of consumer debt. A must-read... (Mary Whaley - Booklist )

Read Busted for the insight. . . .The president and every member of Congress should read this book. (Michelle Singletary - The Washington Post )

Starred Review. This deeply personal exposé is timely and sobering in its candor. (Publishers Weekly )

The fact that lenders were happy to provide the money lies at the heart of Andrews' compelling book: Borrowers and lenders alike were drunk on credit and blind to the risks. (Jim Weiker - Columbus Post Dispatch )

[T]he value of this vividly written history is in the way it helps to explain how our country reached the point where about one out of 10 home mortgages is either overdue or in foreclosure. Some people blame lax regulation. Others point to loose monetary policy at the Federal Reserve and greed on Wall Street. Mr. Andrews's book makes it clear that the real culprit is human nature. (James R. Hagerty - The Wall Street Journal )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (May 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393067947
• ISBN-13: 978-0393067941
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #113,102 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Whining goes down badly, May 26, 2009

By	Yvonne (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

Many people have been misled into making bad choices, or did not have the preparation they would have needed to fare well re mortages, and that's a tragic aspect of this current crisis. That's not the story here: this is a book by a whiner, blaming others.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Never mind the wife, June 5, 2009

By	David Michmerhuizen (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The most basic rule to know when purchasing real estate is that you can afford a house that costs about three times your gross salary. I would certainly expect someone with "lots of financial savvy" to be aware of this old chestnut, one which so many people have disregarded over the last decade, ultimately resulting in our current disaster. He admitted in his NYT article that his effective gross pay after alimony was about $40,000 a year. He then takes out a mortgage on a $460,000 house? *Eleven* times income! That was all sorts of stupid, the root of it really, and he says nothing about it other than that a mortgage broker was willing to abet the act. The spendthrift wife is really just frosting on the stupid house purchase cake, resulting in a book full of "OMG! I can't pay my bills!" Wise up, NYT - your readers deserve better than a clueless moron who can write well.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Neighbors, July 2, 2009

By	Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In so many ways Ed Andrews' personal story of mortgage disaster was both more and less than I expected. Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown presents the embarrassing story of a New York Times economic reporter's personal financial and personal crises of the last few years. One would expect that an educated and informed person would have averted predatory loans and would not have spent so far beyond one's means, but we humans are complicated, and Andrews' story is like that of many others. He divorced, and faced increased expenses by adding his own housing expenses. He remarried, and his costs increased further. Both he and his new wife were reckless with spending and never quite found a productive way of talking about money and spending. For readers who love schadenfreude, Busted will be very satisfying. For fans of reality television, this print version of Cribs might be entertaining. For any reader who wonders about what kind of people get themselves into financial muddles, Andrews and his wife offer some answers but little sympathy because of their selfishness, immaturity and overall recklessness. If these people are our neighbors, the neighborhood is in trouble.

Rating: Two-star (Mildly Recommended)