AMERICA
Story for Recessionary Times:
An Empty House on the Water
HAD BEEN LOOKING IN A LAZY WAY FOR A NEW SPEEDBOAT ALL SUMMER LONG been on the market for close to a year and now
I
up in Sandpoint, Idaho, where my wife and I spend much of June, July, was likely to sell for less than the mortgage.
and August. There is a huge, empty, gorgeous lake called Lake Pend We talked about the boat and arranged to
Oreille — 30 miles long — just a few feet from our condo. Boating have a mechanic look at it. We looked at his
in the afternoons has become my passion. My boat is old and small, overgrown garden and his children’s empty
although I love it, and I had in mind a slightly larger, more-powerful rooms. Empty, empty, the whole place was
version to zip across choppy water more smoothly. cruelly empty. It was like a mansion out of a
Just on the afternoon of Labor Day, an unseasonably cold and horror movie, fi lled with pain.
blustery day up here, I got a tip on a 25-foot launch for sale in a small In how many other homes is this drama
town about 20 miles from here, and I headed off in a mad rush of loss and fear and anger being played out?
across vast wetlands of the Pack River, In how many other
past abandoned railroad tracks, along the families has this fl oating
endless lake, under hundreds of sea birds, rage about moving
until I came to an impressive new stone rapidly down the ladder
home with a grassy lawn leading right to of society morphed into
the whitecapped water.
REEMZ
divorce? How many
There was a moving truck outside and
byby
en Stein
children are sleeping
the owner, a handsome fellow in his 50s, in rooms far from
was talking to a mover. He broke off and their moms or dads
invited me into his home. because Ben Bernanke
It was a stunningly large home, with a wall of fl oor-to-ceiling glass and Henry Paulson decided to see what would
at least 45 feet long facing the water. Part of the wall was a sliding door happen if they tossed a stick of dynamite into
and about 20 feet of open air conducted a strong breeze from the lake the fi nancial system’s gears by letting Lehman
to the living room. fail? How many families have no breadwinner
The room was almost bare. There was one armchair, a plastic because the energy speculators murdered the
dining table, some fancy appliances, but no visible dishes or pots SUV by their manipulation of gasoline prices to
and pans. insane levels?
Ideas have consequences. The decisions
T
he man told me his story. He was a builder from Detroit. He had of gray bureaucrats and hyperconfi dent
made a good living building homes and shopping centers for speculators take children out of their beds and
professionals on the outskirts of the Motor City. He and his wife turn summer playhouses into caves of terror
of 17 years had built their dream summer home here three years ago, and self-loathing. Very far from Wall Street,
making every detail perfect. on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille and on a
Then came the oil price spike, the collapse of the U.S. auto industry, hundred thousand, a million other streets, 10
the utter destruction of much of middle-class Detroit, and then the million other streets, the popping of the bubble
fall of Lehman last September, a credit freeze, and the debt anaconda in such a brutal way leaves blood on the sand
squeezing his business dry, then squeezing his family dry. Money had and on the pavement. I will not forget that man
become tight, and then very tight, and then missing. and his moving truck and the wind rushing
There had been words at home and long, sullen nights of hurt through his elegant, empty living room for a
feelings, and then the wife had moved out, back to her hometown in long time.
Mississippi, fi led for divorce, taken almost all of the furniture with her, I haven’t decided if I will buy the boat. Maybe
and now the man was alone in a magnifi cent, empty, windblown home I’ll just save the money.
awaiting a moving truck — and hoping his home would sell. It had It sure was a scary afternoon.
24 NEWSMAX / NOVEMBER 2009
24_Dreemz.indd 24 9/30/09 7:25 PM
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