General

The infuriating confessions of a TARP wife

The birthday party she threw for her husband couldn’t be held at their “usual multi-star Michelin hotspot”

The wife of an executive whose company was bailed out by TARP shares her new (relatively) parsimonious regime and bemoans her family’s victimized status in an anonymous testimonial published in Portfolio.com. “Extravagance is out; conservative is in,” she writes, which meant the traditional birthday party she threw for her husband couldn’t be held at their “usual multi-star Michelin hotspot” but rather a “clubbier” place that end up costing more. She’s also had to return the Christmas presents given to her by her husband (but not telling him, lest it further his gloom), dipping into credit to buy gifts for friends and shopping her closet (“God forbid someone find me out in something new.”) Her new life requires “making decisions according to a complex algorithm: balancing the need to look like your world hasn’t crumbled beneath you—let’s not alarm the investors!—with the need to appear duly repentant for your subprime sins.” This means sneaking in late to black-tie galas after the society photographer has left and turning down invitations from arts organizations who’ll hit them up for money. Yet she remains buoyant: “The good news is that Americans have short attention spans. Before long, some other group will come along to absorb all the frustration and anger.”

Portfolio.com

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