The “HousingPANIC” blog documented the unfolding housing bubble and subsequent crash in real-time from 2005 to 2008. The blogger expressed strong opinions about government incompetence, media complicity, and the greed of the real estate industry. Posts included news articles, economic analysis, and personal anecdotes to paint a grim picture of the housing market’s deterioration. The blog predicted falling home prices, rising foreclosures, and the eventual collapse of financial institutions tied to the housing market. It also criticized political corruption and called for accountability within the real estate and financial sectors. The blog served as a platform for those who foresaw the crisis and offered a counter-narrative to the prevailing optimism of the time.
I first found the HousingPANIC Blog in early or mid 2021, during the COVID pandemic when I was reading a book on green economics and green energy sustainability that briefly mentioned it. I was amazed how this was documented like a diary throughout a turbulent time in American history. This blog is a treasure trove and a hidden gem for scholars and novices alike to learn from recent history. For those years during covid, I studied intensely market crashes and learned all the moving pieces of the financial and economic system.
The blogger shares many of the same concerns and political views as I do, but I will say they will not always get things right. They are right more often than not, however, their cynicism and pessimism are too much for my liking. Granted, this was warranted given the situation of that time. I would still balance optimism and pessimism, to be more grounded and not let my emotions sweep me away to far out irrational and wrong conclusions.
As I’ve been experimenting more with Google NotebookLM, I decided to use the HousingPANIC Blog as another test subject to see how good Google’s product is. I will acknowledge that it still has its flaws. For example, not shown in the video below, I once put some books and asked it a specific question that I know the answer to, and it was unable to answer despite the answer being right there. I even told it which book it could find the information. I also figured that perhaps it could be overwhelmed with sources and may not always answer questions correctly, nor is the podcast able to pick up important subtle details when dealing with multiple sources. I hope in the future Google will mitigate and refine these issues and others I found.
Social Scholarly 