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It was not my intention to excuse a financial reporter from "the newspaper of record" or his wife from any responsibility in this particular instance. Andrew Edmund and his wife were beyond all doubt living right on the edge of the possible where absolutely everything from an income for the wife which was beyond the median household income for the United States to the continued inflation of the real estate bubble to the ability to serially refinance/draw out cash at favorable rates had to go exactly right in order to prevent their house of cards from collapsing. Edmund surely should have known better (and he likely did) but when you're in the midst of the madness, the madness is often hard to see.
The culture of toxic debt reminds me of nothing so much as addiction. Yes, the addicts have personal responsibility. But they also have dealers encouraging them to try that first hit, and thereafter offering them more and more up to the point that they are bled dry. Alcohol, heroin, cocaine...and creative finance. Not so different. The big guys make the bucks, the dealers get a cut, and the users are left to pick up the pieces.
