The Most Important Article You Maybe Didn’t Read this Weekend

Being wrapped up in year-end matters, not to mention a review of holiday songs that will appear in these virtual pages whenever we get around to it, we here at NotMakingThisUp can do no better than point potential readers to what may well be the most important article you might not have read this weekend.

The article is by ace NY Times columnist Joe Nocera, and the headline explains it all: How India Avoided a Crisis.

The URL is as follows:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/business/20nocera.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Nocera&st=cse

Here’s how Nocera frames the central question of his piece:

… two years ago, the Indian real estate market — commercial and residential alike — was every bit as frothy as the American market. High-rises were being slapped up on spec. Housing developments were sprouting up everywhere. And there was plenty of money flowing into India, mainly from private equity and hedge funds, to fuel the commercial real estate bubble in particular. Goldman Sachs, Carlyle, Blackstone, Citibank — they were all here, throwing money at developers. So why did the Indian banks stay on the sidelines and avoid most of the pain that has been suffered by the big American banks?

For the answer, read the column.

Jeff Matthews I Am Not Making This Up

© 2008 NotMakingThisUp, LLC

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