http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/09/17/a-poetic-tribute-from-case-to-shiller-on-the-real-estate-bubble-of-course/
A poetic tribute from Case to Shiller, on the real-estate bubble, of course
- By JASON ZWEIG
At a conference Friday at Yale University in honor of newly minted Nobel laureate Robert Shiller, economist Karl Case of Wellesley College paid tribute to his long-time research partner with an original poem on the lessons of the real-estate bubble and its aftermath. In the 1980s, after many years of research, Case and Shiller together created what are now known as the S&P/Case-Shiller residential real-estate price indexes—the measures that led Shiller, in 2005 through 2007, to predict that home prices would collapse.
While economics professors are not known for their appreciation of rhyme and meter, Case’s poetic tribute received a warm round of applause from the academic audience. We reprint the full text of the poem here, with Case’s permission, a few tiny tweaks and without further commentary.
Reflection on the Housing Market: Seven Years After the Fall
By Karl E. Case
For the last dozen years we have shed many tears
Living through a recession
The world was broke and it was not a joke
When we talked of another depression
Fifteen million without a job
Foreclosures and banks that fail
401k’s became 201k’s
And everything’s up for sale
How could it be? What didn’t we see
That led to all of this trouble?
There is little doubt that the proximal cause
Was a bursting housing bubble
But other than that who can we blame?
And what do they lament?
Millions of people contributed to
This hundred year event
For me it began in ’76
With a house on Cleveland Road
At 54 thousand, I thought it a lot,
For a small three-bedroom abode
But 10 years later that very same house
Would sell for five times the price
I was glad that I bought … I remember the thought
“This may not be fair but it’s nice”
In Boston alone, that boom created
100 billion in wealth
We spent more, saved less, and I have to confess
It was good for our mental health
We had to know that it couldn’t go on
Someday prices would fall
We knew there were risks – to ourselves and our fiscs
If those prices were ever to stall
It all began in 2001