A twist on New York Times writer’s debt-binge tale
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New York Times economics reporter Edmund L. Andrews’ tell-all book about his personal plunge into ruinous debt didn’t quite tell all, blogger Megan McArdle at TheAtlantic.com discovered.
Andrews’ second wife, Patty Barreiro, sought bankruptcy protection in 1998 and again in 2007, McArdle wrote in a post last week.
Barreiro’s bankruptcies weren’t mentioned in Andrews’ book, ‘Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown,’ or in the widely circulated excerpt that ran in the New York Times Magazine on May 17. I wrote a post on the excerpt here.
The book chronicles Andrews’ and Barreiro’s mortgage and credit-card debt binges beginning in 2004, and how insanely imprudent banks were only too happy to keep throwing money their way.
In the excerpt, Andrews also revealed the discord between himself and Barreiro over spending decisions.
Andrews wrote:
We were both building up grudges. ‘You can’t keep second-guessing me,’ she told me angrily. ‘It’s small-minded and petty, and it’s not very attractive.’ I was beginning to wonder whether she had any clue about how money worked. We were lurching from paycheck to paycheck, one big home repair away from disaster.
After unearthing the information about Barreiro’s bankruptcies, McArdle wrote:
Andrews’ desire to shield his wife is understandable -- hell, laudable. No decent person wants to parade their spouse’s financial trouble in front of the world. But this is material information that changes the tenor of his story. Serial bankruptcy is not a creation of the current credit crisis, and it doesn’t just happen to anyone, particularly anyone with a six figure salary.
After McArdle posted the information on her blog late last week, Edmunds Andrews responded to a query by PBS. He confirmed that the bankruptcies had occurred but asserted that they had ‘nothing to do with our mortgage woes. They were both tied to old debts from before we were married or bought a house. They had nothing to do with my ability to get a mortgage; nor did they have anything to do with our subsequent financial problems.’
Go here for Andrews’ response and for McArdle’s detailed response to his response.
I think her main point is valid enough: The bankruptcies were relevant to the story.
She wrote:
That kind of living up to the edge is, indeed, exactly what Andrews describes happening in his marriage. The bankruptcies suggest that this may be a symptom of a pre-existing problem, rather than the easy credit of the past five years.
-- Tom Petruno