Does Anybody Care?

By Jordan Coughenour

Not more than four or five months ago, the housing crisis was the center of the recession-related news. Every blogger was giving their input as to how it could be resolved, drawing connections between it to anything and everything, most notably the influx of "It's a Wonderful Life" related articles around Christmas time.

         Maybe Pottersville wasn't such a bad idea after all...

In the period that has passed since then however, the financial depression (can we call it that already?!) has gotten infinitely more complicated and large in scope. Realtors at one point were the only group who had a bulls eye painted on their forehead for their careless lending and mortgages. Now we can take aim at everyone from insurance agents to Congressmen to Wall Street traders and executives. The blame game has grown so much that the origins of these financially strained times are muddled, and near lost in the trillions of dollars being thrown around by the government. Huffington Post blogger William K. Black recently took it upon himself to refresh our memories on these issues with his article, "The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Understand the Housing Crisis." Though the piece was well written and the documents well chosen, the majority of commentors seemed to reject his claims and instead went to what they believed to be the crux of the issue- the bankers and the bailouts. I can't remember the last time that one of those looming "foreclosure" signs haunted the front page of prominent blogs such as The Huff Post or, even on the opposing end of the spectrum, the Drudge Report.

What about me?!

Who cares about a few billion dollars worth of houses sitting vacant, or their past owners' debt troubles when Wall Street executives are losing twelve zeros worth of bucks every day? If housing is covered, it's thrown in with another topic, such as Detroit automakers' woes. The bredth of the situation has simply grown too large, with stakes that go beyond a fancy living room and a golf course view, that housing crisis seems to be only one of many larger issues covered by bloggers in this wide-reaching time of ruin.