With a Pulitzer Prize and a New York Times editorship under her belt, it wouldn't seem that Gretchen Morgenson would have time to stop by the small town of Oxford.
However, Morgenson did just that Tuesday.
Returning to her childhood home, Morgenson spoke to an audience of Miami University students, faculty and Oxford community members about the state of the marketplace and financial crisis that the United States has been experiencing.
In her speech, "The Financial Crisis: One Year Later" Morgenson spoke of the dark times that loomed over the nation in the past year.
"It was a shocking and grim period in the history of American capitalism," Morgenson said.
"It's not yet clear to me that our economy is out of the woods."
She started her argument and explanation with three foundations for the shambled economy.
"We had a series of regulators that had no appetite to regulate," Morgenson said. "Secondly, we also had unfettered risk taking that took the upper hand on Wall Street trading floors. Finally, we saw what happened when Washington decides that every living breathing citizen should own a home."
Morgenson said Main Street was still uncomfortable with the bailouts of major corporations by the government.
"One of the basic rules of capitalism: When you fail you're suppose to fail," Morgenson said.
Morgenson cited a push for homeownership starting in the 1990s, bad sub-prime lending, failed regulation and failed government oversight as some of the reasons for the slippery slope that the economy slid down in the past year.
"William Jefferson Clinton launched the National Homeowner Strategy with one goal: raising homeowner rates across America," Morgenson said.
Morgenson said by 2007, homeownership along with greedy lenders were to blame for the perils of many citizens across the United States.
"How this homeownership was nurtured is the story of greed and good intentions, corporate corruption and government support," Morgenson said.
She explained to the audience that lenders were not cautious about who and how much they were loaning.
"Lenders instead were incentivized to make as many loans as possible, if the loan went into fault it was the investors problem," Morgenson said.
According to Morgenson, some tried to warn the nation about the dangers of incentive lending and homeownership.
"There were those along the way who questioned the merits of this homeownership push; they were met with a deafening silence," Morgenson said. "Some independent thinkers in academia argue that for many renting a home was a better idea. Their voices were drowned out by the homeownership machine."
Patricia Gallagher Newberry, lecturer and coordinator of special events and internships for Miami's journalism program, said the trip was completely financed by The New York Times Readership Program.
"This is possible because of The New York Times connection, our collegiate readership program, because we participate in that, The New York Times is paying for Gretchen's visit," Newberry said. "We don't have a deep well of dollars. This is out of the generosity of The New York Times."
