This story will break your heart...

[onager]

Please insert your own sarcasm smiley...

For DU'ers who haven't "met" me, I'm an American currently working in Egypt on long-term assignment. I've been here almost 3 years now.

This morning (day off!), I've been reading U.S. financial news, especially related to the subprime mortgage disaster. I'm somewhat out of the loop over here, newswise. We get CNN Intl. and the BBC, but not Faux, for which I am grateful.

Recently, here in Egypt, I saw an excellent Candadian Broadcasting documentary called "Mortgage Meltdown." Informative but gruesome. International economists NOT currently on the Bush payroll tracked the effects of this crisis on such things as the collapse of hedge funds in Europe and Australia. And warned that this is just the beginning.

While poking around the CNN Money site, I ran across interviews with over 60 Americans, many of them currently experiencing first-hand economic pain because of the mortgage meltdown.

Then I came across another article that was truly heart-breaking...

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (CNNMoney.com) -- Kent and Mysti Cope met and fell in love working for one of the nation's top subprime lenders. Now, their life has been turned upside down after the sudden implosion of the subprime mortgage industry...

The two didn't say exactly how much money they made at their last jobs but Kent admitted they each had six-figure incomes.

Today, they're trying to get by on his unemployment benefits of about $450 a week, which covers only about an eighth of the basic payments they owe every month.

Got that? This is a couple who met and married while working as loan sharks, in the middle of the shark pool: Irvine, CA.

How are they adjusting?

And they've made cutbacks: trading in Kent's Corvette for a Suburban and getting rid of the gardener, for example...

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/31/news/economy/copes/index.htm

[dipsydoodle]

1. There isn't a smiley for

fuck 'em.

They've gained from what has become the misery of others. Hope they finish up in a trailer : there maybe a few available for occupation in the the Green Zone I hear.

[fasttense]

2. Wow, they seem to go from bad to worse.

Kent is getting his real estate license, and they buy a gas guzzling 9 seater SUV to replace their fairly gas efficient corvette. Do these people have common sense?

[Warpy]

3. It's been replaced by a sense of entitlement

and it's going to be fun to watch the economically smug enter the steep side of the learning curve as their years as pampered high rollers come to a screeching halt.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Doesn't sound like it

If I had to live on a shoestring (which I've had to do), I certainly wouldn't consider trading a relatively fuel-efficient vehicle for a gas guzzling tank

[TalkingDog]

4. Insert this

and spin


Karma bites (proportionally)

[AnneD]

5. I'm getting a different take on this....

I think they are still in denial that this is happening to them. They still have not made the financial choices that will help them survive. I think they are as screwed as the rest of us...they just don't realize it yet and have a little bigger cushion-but are not using it to their advantage. And THAT is what happens when you develop a sense of privilege and entitlement, you are like a de clawed cat dumped by the roadside and expected to defend yourself.

[skoalyman]

6. $450 a week my sister and her husband

make around that amount apiece thats pretty normal for us.They should have been saving there money all those years and not blowing and going so to speak.

[Dirty Hippie]

7. I feel very sorry for

the gardener.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. I can't wrap my mind aorund this figure:

Their home equity line, mortgage, health and life insurance premiums alone cost about $10,000 a month.

10 K is half of our annual income.
In 2 months they spend on loan repayment, insurance, and mortgage
what we live on for a year.

:wow:

[distantearlywarning]

9. OMG you mean they might have to water the lawn themselves??!?

:cry:

Ok, all sarcasm aside, my husband and I live very comfortably in Pittsburgh, PA on what they get in unemployment benefits. Perhaps this couple should consider a major lifestyle change in the near future?