"In reality, it was desperation disguised as hope; some fragile belief that this whole FBI informant nightmare had an expiration date. Sue's dad, Bob, tipped us off about a new build in Westwood. We drove out one humid afternoon, stepped inside, and immediately saw a future we weren't sure we deserved: four bedrooms, three and a half baths, wide hallways that echoed with the promise of kids' laughter."
"The down payment came from our savings and what was left from my last-minute sale of Lehman stock back in May. By Friday, September 12, those same shares were already staggering at $3.65. All weekend we watched the headlines darken: CEOs locked in at the New York Fed on Saturday, emergency calls with the Treasury, frantic rumors of a savior. By Sunday night, the word was out - there would be no rescue."
"On Monday, September 15 - the very day we closed - Lehman went to zero. The entire system was in free fall, and so were we: me, secretly wired up for the FBI, one bad quarter away from being exposed; Sue, fighting to restart a career in the middle of a recession. We didn't buy that house because it was practical. We bought it because we needed to believe in something."
In summer 2008, an FBI informant and his wife Sue pursued homeownership as an act of hope amid their secret involvement with federal authorities. They found a house in Westwood and made an offer, financing the down payment with savings and proceeds from selling Lehman Brothers stock in May. By mid-September, as they closed on the property, Lehman Brothers collapsed into bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, the same day of their purchase. The couple faced mounting financial pressure: the informant risked exposure through his FBI work, Sue struggled to restart her career during the recession, and they needed dual incomes to sustain mortgage payments and their envisioned family life. Their home purchase represented desperate optimism rather than practical financial planning.
#fbi-informant #2008-financial-crisis #lehman-brothers-collapse #homeownership #financial-desperation
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