Life's like that!

July 29, 2009

This American Life: Scenes from a Recession

This American Life: Scenes from a Recession
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1289

Prologue.

Host Ira Glass notes the sub-industry in journalism right now of reporting anything that looks like a sign of the recession. He then goes on to list a handful of his own favorites, including a dentist who’s seen an increase in broken teeth from grinding, and a decrease in shark attacks.

Act One. Is the Condo Half Empty, or Is the Condo Half Full?

Ira goes to Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood to talk to some condo owners who are in a precarious situation—since the housing market crash, the developer who renovated and sold them their units—Haso Meseljevic—has all but disappeared. He’s in foreclosure on half of their building’s units. His son Samel Meseljevic and lawyer Hugh Howard aren't much help either. In the meantime, they have no one to pay for the repairs and maintenance of the building they all bought into.