In 2008, during the so-called Great Recession, real estate markets and financial institutions collapsed under the weight of over-expectation and you might say greed. Homes became investments instead of places to call home. Mortgages became bundled financial instruments instead of financial arrangements to make a big purchase over time. Loans were handed out without so much as a glance at proof of income or strength of one's financial footing. It all came tumbling down and suddenly there were long lines at food pantries filled with people who never dreamed they would be in need of food assistance. Foreclosure court dockets were so overfilled they were years behind keeping up. Foreclosure tours became a thing. Empty homes, often degrading, were all over the place — especially here in Southwest Florida.
And while today's economic and market conditions are far from directly analogous, we are definitely in what economists call a K-shaped economy. The top line of the K is people with property and investments and solid income for whom things probably feel solid. The bottom line of the K is people who rent and have little or investments and who live paycheck-to-paycheck for whom cost of living concerns are very real. And the market's are being propped up by AI company and tech stocks that are starting to look unstable.
University Press of Florida recently re-released a book first published in 2010 called "Exiles in Eden: life among the ruins of Florida's great recession." It's part memoir, part Florida history, and part sociological exploration of the world in the year or so after the 2008 collapse. We talk with its author to reflect on the past, and the present.
Guest:
Paul Reyes, editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review.
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