> how much of a superpower simple shoe-leather reporting actually is. Derek Thompson's an incredibly sharp writer, but not really a subject matter expert on housing economics; all he did here was read papers and call up the authorities they cited, and the narrative behind those papers collapsed.
Matthew Stoller called the people Derek Thompson called, and some said Derek had misrepresented their opinions. So shoe leather caused the narrative of this so-called reputation to collapse as well.
In any event, my argument was also that three other factors — particularly financial policy changes starting in the 1980s that deprived small builders of bank capital, helped Wall Street to exert control over large builders and impose production discipline on them...
Musharbash's argument, however, is dependent on the exercise of oligopoly power (whether he admits that or not, and given that he's long argued that the oligopoly is present...), and there's no evidence of it!
He tries to twist Lambert's words to say he's only saying there's no evidence of builders throttling at a national scale, thereby leaving room for his argument that it's happening in particular markets (https://x.com/musharbash_b/status/1951133245342404888). The only problem? Lambert clearly isn't specifying a national scale when he says "US," because he then continues by providing an explanation for the local weakening seen in some metros.
Musharbash seems smart enough to understand that, which leaves intentional misrepresentation. He's doing damage control, and hoping to wave his hands hard enough that it isn't noticed.
Understood, but it's also the case that people frequently cite Stoller as if he's a legitimate analyst like a New York Times or Wall Street Journal reporter with skills and editors, and he doesn't actually understand any of the subjects he's trying to report on. I'll dial the snark back.
That didn’t age well. Based on the response it sounded like he made it up whole cloth or just completely ignored big portions of what the people he called said?
Matthew Stoller called the people Derek Thompson called, and some said Derek had misrepresented their opinions. So shoe leather caused the narrative of this so-called reputation to collapse as well.