Seems as if everyone is writing about Florida and not in a good way. A lengthy piece in the New York Times about the housing bust in Fort Meyers is a good preface for the longer piece in the New Yorker. Both articles document the human cost of the foreclosure wave sweeping the Sunshine State, with author George Packer calling Florida “The Ponzi State” (referencing the fraudulent Ponzi scheme). “This is one of the places where the financial crisis began,” Packer writes. “Florida has epitomized the boom-and-bust cycle of American business ever since a land rush in the 1920s ended with the devastating hurricane of 1926. The state’s economy depends almost entirely on growth; that is, on new arrivals and the wealth they generated in construction and real estate.” As you might imagine, that statement drew a few Floridians’ ire, and reactions are documented in this article from News-Press.com of Fort Meyers. Alas, the article from the New Yorker is only available to subscribers but here’s a video to whet your appetite.
Credit: New York Times
