Better late than never

Weeks or months after every other publication has written about it, the New York Times' Gretchen Morgenson discovers trouble in mortgage lending.

Welcome to the party, Gretch. Where you been?

It is pretty funny to watch Dumb heckling Dumberer, though:

On March 1, a Wall Street analyst at Bear Stearns wrote an upbeat report on a company that specializes in making mortgages to cash-poor homebuyers. The company, New Century Financial, had already disclosed that a growing number of borrowers were defaulting, and its stock, at around $15, had lost half its value in three weeks.

What happened next seems all too familiar to investors who bought technology stocks in 2000 at the breathless urging of Wall Street analysts. Last week, New Century said it would stop making loans and needed emergency financing to survive. The stock collapsed to $3.21.

...

The Bear Stearns analyst who upgraded New Century, Scott R. Coren, wrote in a research note that the company’s stock price reflected the risks in its industry, and that the downside risk was about $10 in a “rescue-sale scenario.” According to New Century, Bear Stearns is among the firms with a “longstanding” relationship financing its mortgage operation. Mr. Coren, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment.

This is Morgenson's schtick. Every Sunday, she rails against one of two groups of people: greedy/corrupt corporate executives and stupid/corrupt Wall Street analysts and bankers. She never breaks any new news, though, always repeating what is common knowledge.

OK, Gretch. If belittling others makes you feel better about yourself, go for it. But your position as a featured columnist at one of the country's largest newspapers is, or should be, tenuous. You belatedly write the blatantly obvious. If the Times had more competent management, you'd be out on your ass.