May 27, 2009
FOLLOWUP COMMENTARY: Reporter Edmund Andrews Left Out His New Wife's Two Bankruptcies
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Editor
In my May 20, 2009 commentary on the financial woes of a high-earning New York Times reporter based in Washington, DC (link: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/090520-kinchen-columnsmortgages.htm) I chronicled the story of Edmund L. Andrews and his difficulties paying the mortgage on a $460,000 house in Silver Spring, MD.
Now comes investigative reporter Megan McArdle to fill us in on what Andrews omitted in telling of his financial woes and those of his new wife, Patty Barreiro (link:http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/the_road_to_bankruptcy.php).
Andrews failed to mention in both his NY Times Magazine story and his book that Barreiro, previously married to a Hollywood producer, had declared bankruptcy in California and later in Montgomery County, MD, after she was married to Andrews.
McArdle writes: "At the end of his book's harrowing account of mortgage mistakes and credit card crises, Edmund Andrews writes: 'While our misadventure had certainly been more extreme than those of many other Americans, our situation was not all that unusual.' And indeed the book reads like the story of an American Everyman, easily sucked in to the alluring world of easy credit as he struggled to blend a new family. The terrifying implication is that it could happen to you--to anyone who leads with their heart and not their head.
"But en route to that moral, it turns out the story has been tidied up a little. Patty Barreiro, Andrews' wife, has declared bankruptcy twice. The second time was while they were married, a detail that didn't make it into either the book or the excerpt that ran in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine.
"Andrews' desire to shield his wife is understandable--hell, laudable. No decent person wants to parade their spouse's financial trouble in front of the world. But this is material information that changes the tenor of his story. Serial bankruptcy is not a creation of the current credit crisis, and it doesn't just happen to anyone, particularly anyone with a six figure salary.
"In September 1998, California bankruptcy court records indicate that Patty and her first husband declared bankruptcy. The financial statement they filed with the court indicated family income of $174,000 in 1996, $87,000 in 1997, and $126,000 in the first nine months of 1998. The income fluctuations are not surprising, given that her husband was in the film production industry. By the time of the filing, the couple owed about $30,000 on 8 credit cards, over $200,000 in back taxes, and almost $15,000 in private school tuition, as well as substantial car and mortgage payments.
"In 2007, nearly as soon as she was eligible, Patty Barreiro filed again in Montgomery Country. When called for comment yesterday, Andrews was unavailable, but there is no question that it is his wife: his income and occupation are prominently featured in the docket."
* * *
Having lived for 16 years in Los Angeles, I can attest to the temptations to get into debt far beyond your capacity to pay it off. It's something I resisted, which was easy because my top income while working for the Los Angeles Times was just a tad over $50,000 a year. That's chump change in La-La-Land, but it kept us on the straight and narrow financial path.
McArdle's story, which I retrieved from the Poynter journalism blog site, is worth reading not only for her writing, but also the more than 200 comments posted below the story.
Here are two samples; read all of them to find out how some people live today in deadbeat America:
Reply
madamelavoix May 21, 2009 7:08 PM
Megan,
I've never read your column before today & what I have encountered in your comments thread is much more disturbing than learning of Patty Barreiro's multiple bankruptcies. How is Ms. Barreiro's financial status related to whether or not she should have custody of her children, if she is a good mother, and/or whether or not Mr. Andrews should have married her, etc.
There seems to be an overly misogynistic and blaming atmosphere in this thread- let's string Patty, Edmund, and The New York Times up for crimes against humanity. Seriously, people. The nastiness expressed here is shameful.
Debtor's prisons? Yeah, I'm sure you'd love 17th century France.
Reply
apsuman (Replying to: madamelavoix) May 21, 2009 7:33 PM
"How is Ms. Barreiro's financial status related to whether or not she should have custody of her children, if she is a good mother, and/or whether or not Mr. Andrews should have married her, etc."
I am not saying I agree with this thought, but here it is: If she can not handle money to the point of having to declare bankruptcy, then maybe she is not a good mother.
As for the part about Mr. Andrews should have married her, I will happily comment on that. Have you see the freecreditreport dot com commercial about living in the basement of his wife's house because of her bad credit? If you listen to Dave Ramsey he routinely tells couples to not get married until they have the whole "money discussion". My parents told me the same thing. Bankruptcy is a statement of failure. There might be some real explanation, like you owned a Dodge dealership and Obama made Chrysler take it from you but not any of the inventory or parts but it is still a failure. Given that you have a woman that lived in a six figure household during the 90's and she could not pay her bills ought to be a red flag. A hold off on marrying her until I get things figured out red flag.
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FOLLOWUP COMMENTARY: Reporter Edmund Andrews Left Out His New Wife's Two Bankruptcies
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Editor
In my May 20, 2009 commentary on the financial woes of a high-earning New York Times reporter based in Washington, DC (link: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/090520-kinchen-columnsmortgages.htm) I chronicled the story of Edmund L. Andrews and his difficulties paying the mortgage on a $460,000 house in Silver Spring, MD.
Now comes investigative reporter Megan McArdle to fill us in on what Andrews omitted in telling of his financial woes and those of his new wife, Patty Barreiro (link:http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/the_road_to_bankruptcy.php).
Andrews failed to mention in both his NY Times Magazine story and his book that Barreiro, previously married to a Hollywood producer, had declared bankruptcy in California and later in Montgomery County, MD, after she was married to Andrews.
McArdle writes: "At the end of his book's harrowing account of mortgage mistakes and credit card crises, Edmund Andrews writes: 'While our misadventure had certainly been more extreme than those of many other Americans, our situation was not all that unusual.' And indeed the book reads like the story of an American Everyman, easily sucked in to the alluring world of easy credit as he struggled to blend a new family. The terrifying implication is that it could happen to you--to anyone who leads with their heart and not their head.
"But en route to that moral, it turns out the story has been tidied up a little. Patty Barreiro, Andrews' wife, has declared bankruptcy twice. The second time was while they were married, a detail that didn't make it into either the book or the excerpt that ran in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine.
"Andrews' desire to shield his wife is understandable--hell, laudable. No decent person wants to parade their spouse's financial trouble in front of the world. But this is material information that changes the tenor of his story. Serial bankruptcy is not a creation of the current credit crisis, and it doesn't just happen to anyone, particularly anyone with a six figure salary.
"In September 1998, California bankruptcy court records indicate that Patty and her first husband declared bankruptcy. The financial statement they filed with the court indicated family income of $174,000 in 1996, $87,000 in 1997, and $126,000 in the first nine months of 1998. The income fluctuations are not surprising, given that her husband was in the film production industry. By the time of the filing, the couple owed about $30,000 on 8 credit cards, over $200,000 in back taxes, and almost $15,000 in private school tuition, as well as substantial car and mortgage payments.
"In 2007, nearly as soon as she was eligible, Patty Barreiro filed again in Montgomery Country. When called for comment yesterday, Andrews was unavailable, but there is no question that it is his wife: his income and occupation are prominently featured in the docket."
* * *
Having lived for 16 years in Los Angeles, I can attest to the temptations to get into debt far beyond your capacity to pay it off. It's something I resisted, which was easy because my top income while working for the Los Angeles Times was just a tad over $50,000 a year. That's chump change in La-La-Land, but it kept us on the straight and narrow financial path.
McArdle's story, which I retrieved from the Poynter journalism blog site, is worth reading not only for her writing, but also the more than 200 comments posted below the story.
Here are two samples; read all of them to find out how some people live today in deadbeat America:
Reply
madamelavoix May 21, 2009 7:08 PM
Megan,
I've never read your column before today & what I have encountered in your comments thread is much more disturbing than learning of Patty Barreiro's multiple bankruptcies. How is Ms. Barreiro's financial status related to whether or not she should have custody of her children, if she is a good mother, and/or whether or not Mr. Andrews should have married her, etc.
There seems to be an overly misogynistic and blaming atmosphere in this thread- let's string Patty, Edmund, and The New York Times up for crimes against humanity. Seriously, people. The nastiness expressed here is shameful.
Debtor's prisons? Yeah, I'm sure you'd love 17th century France.
Reply
apsuman (Replying to: madamelavoix) May 21, 2009 7:33 PM
"How is Ms. Barreiro's financial status related to whether or not she should have custody of her children, if she is a good mother, and/or whether or not Mr. Andrews should have married her, etc."
I am not saying I agree with this thought, but here it is: If she can not handle money to the point of having to declare bankruptcy, then maybe she is not a good mother.
As for the part about Mr. Andrews should have married her, I will happily comment on that. Have you see the freecreditreport dot com commercial about living in the basement of his wife's house because of her bad credit? If you listen to Dave Ramsey he routinely tells couples to not get married until they have the whole "money discussion". My parents told me the same thing. Bankruptcy is a statement of failure. There might be some real explanation, like you owned a Dodge dealership and Obama made Chrysler take it from you but not any of the inventory or parts but it is still a failure. Given that you have a woman that lived in a six figure household during the 90's and she could not pay her bills ought to be a red flag. A hold off on marrying her until I get things figured out red flag.
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