There must be some sort of mystical, cosmic, possibly karmic, significance in this: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s childhood home in Dillon, South Carolina, is being sold after foreclosure.
… Mr. Bernanke’s family sold the property more than a decade ago. It ended up on the block late last year after its former owners fell behind on their mortgage payments.
The small town that gave the Fed its chairman is suffering more than most from the financial and economic crisis he’s struggling to fix. Already hit by the long decline of the local tobacco and textile industries, Dillon County is facing a fresh assault of plant closings and layoffs that have pushed its unemployment rate to 14.2% — almost double the national average. A foreclosure wave that began in mobile-home parks is spreading to more-established neighborhoods. …
Read the full Wall Street Journal article here and see the slide show here.
In addition to providing a good snapshot of what’s happening in small-town America in general, the story’s also chock-full with interesting tidbits on the chairman’s early life. This one, for instance:
As a young man, Mr Bernanke waited tables at South of the Border’s Sombrero room.
Highly recommended Presidents Day (i.e. US markets closed) reading.
Related links:
Fed chief’s boyhood home is sold after foreclosure – WSJ
King’s faded realm – FT