Joel Stein gets it

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Since joining the L.A. Times staff, I’ve become a more faithful reader of the newspaper, and I’ve come to a very controversial conclusion: columnist Joel Stein (pictured) is a funny, funny guy*. I give you exhibit A, today’s column about the ridiculouslness of the real estate bubble and the stimulus package:

‘... when the government senses you might blame it for something -- such as the fact that you spent $1 million on a three-bedroom house, and now you owe a ridiculous $1 million for a lousy three-bedroom house -- it panics like a grandparent and sends you a small check in the mail.’

More: ‘No reasonable person would give us more money after what we’ve done with ours. They would tell us to put some cash in the bank and stop using the AmEx to make every appliance in our house either flat or made of stainless steel, as if we were preparing to trap ‘Superman II’ villains.’

More: ‘We got here for the same reason people always get in trouble, from prom night to the blackjack table to Iraq: We got overexcited. We ignored centuries of data saying real estate is a worse investment than stocks, and instead based our investment strategy on the fact that our neighbor totally just sold his house for a serious ton of money, for real.’

Thoughts? Comments? Insights? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
*I’ve also come to the conclusion that most of the people who don’t think Joel Stein is a funny guy are bitter (and not very funny) journalists who want a cushy job like his.