Comment by regularization
2 days ago
> how much of a superpower simple shoe-leather reporting actually is. Derek Thompson's an incredibly sharp writer, but not really a subject matter expert on housing economics; all he did here was read papers and call up the authorities they cited, and the narrative behind those papers collapsed.
Matthew Stoller called the people Derek Thompson called, and some said Derek had misrepresented their opinions. So shoe leather caused the narrative of this so-called reputation to collapse as well.
> and some said Derek had misrepresented their opinions
Because he did? Or because once the entire cumulative picture got painted they looked bad and needed to walk their opinions back?
Link? I'd love to read countervailing reporting.
I want to say something about Stoller bringing a knife to a gunfight but really this fight only required Thompson to have a telephone.
https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1951083395146231957
What did Stoller think was going to happen? Calling people up on the phone is Thompson's entire schtick at this point.
Musharbash left a meaty reply in the thread:
In any event, my argument was also that three other factors — particularly financial policy changes starting in the 1980s that deprived small builders of bank capital, helped Wall Street to exert control over large builders and impose production discipline on them...
https://xcancel.com/DKThomp/status/1951089471501508766#m
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BTW, you can use 'xcancel' (or even post the Blue Sky links) if you don't want to give traffic to the guy reposting what's in the screenshot:
https://bsky.app/profile/whstancil.bsky.social/post/3lv6ul7x...
Appreciate the fact digging!
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