Tanta photo courtesy of Calculated Risk blog.
Doris Dungey, a writer under the pseudonym Tanta who illuminated the inner workings of how home loans are made and challenged the writing of journalists covering the mortgage meltdown, died Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, according to the New York Times. She was 47.
Her observations, witty with a hint of acid, helped economics blog Calculated Risk become nationally popular. It gets more than 75,000 visits a day.
Here’s a clip from the New York Times, which says Dungey died of ovarian cancer, according to her sister Cathy Stickelmaier:
Tanta used her extensive knowledge of the loan industry to comment, castigate and above all instruct. Her fans ranged from the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who cited her in his blog, to analysts at the Federal Reserve, who cited her in a paper on “Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit.”
She wrote under a pseudonym because she hoped to return to work someday, if she could ever beat the cancer. The Times says she had a a graduate degree in English and worked as a writer and trainer for such lenders as Champion Federal and AmerUs Mortgage.
Interestingly, the Times obit fails to mention that Dungey/Tanta often skewered Times writer Gretchen Morgenson.
Here’s a sample of a Tanta post from 9-30-2007:
I don’t know how many posts I’ve written on Gretchen Morgenson’s terrible reporting. I guess I’m going to have to start keeping score. “Can These Mortgages Be Saved?” Can this “reporter” be saved?
Read that post HERE. (Confession time: I was at least once on the receiving end of a Tanta barb… Well, I like to think she inspired me to greater accuracy.)
Calculated Risk has a collection of reader comments on Tanta HERE.
And the Wall Street Journal’s economics blog has a post on her HERE. Phil Izzo writes, “Calculated Risk will continue under her co-blogger, and will remain one of the key outposts for those looking for news and analysis of the financial crisis. However, the continuing discussion that is the blogosphere will be less dynamic in Tanta’s absence.”
Well. With her dying, there goes the neighborhood.
Very sad
She was incredibly knowledgable and one of the few bloggers that reported fairly on the mortgage industry. With her background in the industry, she had the unique perspective to criticize the excesses, without assuming that every action taken by mortgage companies was for the purpose of screwing borrowers.
I don’t think the mainstream media has the ability to report on nuanced topics like mortgages and global finance without gross generalizations that end up distorting readers’ perspectives. The rise of so many independent finance/economics blogs shows what a gap in news coverage there really is and how hungry the public is for this kind of reporting.
Tanta was undoubtedly one of the best bloggers to fill this need, so her passing is a huge loss for those that are interested in what’s currently happening with the global economy.
Tanta’s writings at CR help form my staunch opinions on this massive ponzi scheme. I’m glad she was able to hang on this long, and earn her stripes as the Matriarch of the financial blogosphere.
God Bless Tanta!
That Tanta could be so widely read, and so influential, does not speak well of the financial press in the US. So many journalists’ paychecks, so few insights!
Her warmth, wit and passionate pursuit of truth will be much missed.