When the $5 trillion housing bubble ruptured like an aneurism in 2008, the economy imploded. Home values plummeted — some say back to earth where they belonged in the first place — and millions of jobs suddenly vanished.
Restrepo said nobody should or could be fully blamed for the economy. “This recession has behaved like no other in history,” he said, “and it continues to do things that are unexpected.”
Few saw it coming, not even John Restrepo, the chairman of the Nevada Economic Forum, who quietly declared personal bankruptcy in November. The economist empowered to tell lawmakers just how much money they will have on hand to pay for government services wasn’t able to predict his own financial downfall states an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal.
“It happened so fast,” Restrepo said. “My personal situation was just like the national situation. Nobody saw this coming. Wall Street didn’t see it, the Fed didn’t see it. Do you really think the MGM would have built CityCenter if their top financial guys saw this?”
