I got the May 2006 issue of Harpers this afternoon and found two very interesting articles that relate back to blogs I posted in January about debt and pigs. The first was written by Michael Hudson and is billed as “An Illustrated Guide to the Coming Real Estate Collapse”. It indulged in a little bit of sensationalism comparing home mortgages to medieval serfdom, but went on to effectively explain the factors that have led to the current American real estate market with twenty slick info-graphics by Nigel Holmes. Some of the statistics were jaw dropping, like the charts showing American mortgage debt sky rocketing compared to the G.D.P., the statistic that nearly half of first home loans taken last year were done with no money down, and the increasing popularity of “interest only” and “negative amortization” (less that “interest only”) loans. The article sites the real estate bubble in Japan during the 1990s and culminates in a graph illustrating the concept of “negative equity” (the state of having more mortgage debt than your house value) with big, pointy teeth chasing down a hapless homeowner. As a die hard, Bay Area apartment dweller, I eat this kind of stuff up, but I also think it is an important read for all those young couples who are scrambling to buy a house before starting a family and people who plan to get rich by selling their house and moving to Iowa. Ridiculous mortgage debt doesn’t provide security and financial freedom unless you own a bank.
The second article is titled “Swine of the Times”. It deals with the industrial and scientific development that has led up to modern pigs. It was written by a San Francisco, freelance writer, and meat eater named Nathanael Johnson and steers clear of most of the slaughter house horror stories you would expect from a Peta brochure. Instead the article focuses on breeding and artificial insemination processes. The industry has gone through rapid change in the last couple of years. In 1990 only 7% of Americas pigs were produced using artificial insemination. Today it is 90%. The author mentions a few disturbing reminders about impoverished Midwestern farmers and porcine living conditions, but the overall tone of the article is relatively light (given the subject matter). I actually found myself laughing out loud at a couple of antidotes about uncomfortable visits with farmers who were in the midst of shepherding along pig reproductive activities. If this all sounds like your idea of fun, pick up a copy unless it has been banned in your town because it mentions pig penises.
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