29 October 2011
News Writing Reporting
California and Bust
Michael Lewis wrote about the financial crisis’ in the U.S. and in Europe and Greece. In his articles he has an approach where you don’t feel like you are just reading his articles, but that you also are going through his experience and are just as aware of the financial crisis’ as much as he is. His articles are a nice read and easy to follow along. He is also very descriptive in his writing, which may be why it is easy to picture his experience and also fell like you are there with him. In Michael Lewis’ article California and Bust, he talks about how the U.S. is unable to pay back money the government borrowed and that they owe retired workers money but are unable to pay them. In time, many cities in California will go bankrupt. His article starts with him defending Meredith Whitney’s thoughts on how she think the U.S. did a terrible job announcing to the public America’s debt problems and that within a year the word will get out and everyone will be aware how much the U.S. owes. The number are so high it is unrealistic that the government will ever be able to repay their debts. Whitney thinks that even thought states are struggling to get by, they are not as vulnerable compared to cities, because states can take everything from cities to get the funding they need, which why California is in trouble. Lewis talks about cities in California that Whitney has already seen fall hard and are in great trouble and looks at another city that is following close behind.
In Vallejo, the first city to fail had to declare bankruptcy in 2008. The city is not able to pave the roads anymore, and traffic lights are always set on the flashing mode. They can’t provide many public services and the city is only paying its non-employee creditors five cents for every dollar. A city trailing Vallejo is San Jose.
In San Jose, they are struggling to be able to afford to keep public workers around. The number of public workers will drop dramatically. Both these cities are struggling and many more cities will most likely follow the same path. Some cities may not make it through and others may but it will not be easy.
Lewis says companies will start leaving weak states and moving towards stronger, more financially stable states.
The second article I choose to write about is “It’s the Economy dummkoph!” This article focuses more on the financial problems in Greece and in Ireland and other countries. Germany is one of the main countries that controls the money because they have many major banks, and these banks hold many of other countries money. Germany is the only country who can help the other countries from their financial problems, but the other countries refuse the help. These countries do not want to show that they are struggling and have to rely on Germany, who they already put their trust with their money, to solve their problems. In his article, he go into great depth about the people he interviews. He describes how they look and act. You get a lot out of reading the article because he is so descriptive.
In both of the articles I read from Michael Lewis, he seems to be very passionate about his writings. He values the research and interviews he has done. He is very descriptive in every way. He focuses on little details to help present his information. The way he writes makes you feel like you are there and in my opinion it makes it easier to read the articles. Many people who are not interested in our own economic problems would certainly not care about other countries economic problems, but the way he writes it seems like you are reading about his trip. You get full details on what he is experiencing and it makes the read a little more enjoyable. He relates to more people this way and really catches more peoples attention.
In these papers, Michael Lewis does a wonderful job writing with art and craft. Art is writing about the piece you want to accomplish. It is about connecting with the readers and getting them interested in something some readers may not find that fascinating and keeping their attention the whole time. Lewis does a wonderful job accomplishing this task. Craft is being able to write a story that makes sense and flows. It can not just be random information. It has to be well written and easy to follow along. Lewis does a great job with connecting with his audience and writing papers in a nice orderly way. It is not hard to understand the points he is trying to get across, even for people who have not been keeping up with the economy. He gives a lot of back round information and catches you up on the current economic situation instead of assuming you already know what is going on and continuing on from there. He has nice reliable sources which help bring the article to life and I think is more of the art part by being able to relate to the people who are actually going through the economic problems in their own country. He also gets more than one source so you have a wide range of opinions. Overall, Michael Lewis is a great writer and makes his articles very interesting and accomplishes the art of catching readers attention to get them interested or involved in his views that he sees as issues more people in the world should read up on and be aware of.
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