The Evening Pour | Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste
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| September 20, 2026 · Day 205 |
| The Evening Pour |
Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste
Day 205. After the financial crisis, institutional investors bought foreclosed homes in bulk and turned them into rentals. The Government Accountability Office identified a crucial advantage: they could raise capital while mortgage lenders were pulling back. The conditions that cost families their homes gave well-financed buyers an opening. GAO
SOURCE EXCERPT · GAO · MAY 22, 2024
“institutional investors had a funding advantage over smaller investors at a time when mortgage lenders were generally reducing lending.” U.S. Government Accountability Office · GAO-24-106643 |
A crisis doesn’t leave everyone standing in the same place. Someone who needs to sell to stay afloat faces a different economy from someone with cash and time to buy. Falling prices can destroy a household’s savings while making the assets it once owned more accessible to somebody else.
That history is part of why I’m increasingly dissatisfied with incompetence as a complete explanation for this war. Decisions that look disastrous from where most people sit may be acceptable—even desirable—to some of the people with influence over them.
The danger to Hormuz was understood beforehand. In March, the director of national intelligence told the Senate that Iran using the strait as leverage had long been an intelligence assessment. Foreseeable risks were accepted. Understanding that choice means examining how its supporters weighed the costs, including costs they wouldn’t personally bear. Senate testimony
There’s a difference between taking advantage of a crisis and helping create or prolong one. The first is well documented in our economic history. Establishing the second means tracing decisions, money and influence; the outcome alone won’t do it.
For this war, I want to follow the people and institutions that supported the policies, the risks they expected to bear, and the opportunities they stood to gain. Their interests belong in the explanation of how these decisions were made.
I’m keeping the receipts.
— T.
The Dispatch
MOSCOW Ukraine Hits Moscow Refinery On Russia’s Final Voting DayUkrainian forces struck the Moscow Oil Refinery overnight into Sunday, a strike Kyiv acknowledged and Moscow said damaged the plant. Governor Andrei Vorobyov raised the surrounding region’s death toll to three after an injured person died in hospital; Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said defenses intercepted 450 drones approaching the capital, a count that hasn’t been independently verified. FACT BOX
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HORMUZ Tehran Sets Hormuz Conditions; Washington Gives No End DateParliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday that Iran wouldn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz until its conditions were met and US commitments implemented, Fars reported. Iran’s central military command separately said it had information that Washington was preparing renewed action and threatened sustained attacks on US bases and interests if attacked. On CNN, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz declined to give an end date for the war and said economic pressure would continue. Mohsen Rezaei told Al Jazeera on Saturday that Iran’s terms reached Washington through Qatar: end the war on all fronts, release frozen funds and lift the naval blockade. He said a plan negotiated through Oman remained available; that isn’t an agreed settlement. |
ANKARA Türkiye Offers Saudi Military Help; Houthis Warn Against Joining RiyadhForeign Minister Hakan Fidan said Saturday that Türkiye could meet Saudi military needs under its defence pact with Riyadh and Islamabad, while urging that the kingdom be kept out of the US-Iran war. On Sunday, Houthi official Mohamed al-Bukhaiti told AP the group had assured Washington it wouldn’t attack US vessels in the Red Sea, but warned countries against joining Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s war. |
CAIRO El-Sisi Reaffirms Sudan’s Unity In Talks With CIA ChiefCIA Director John Ratcliffe met President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday with intelligence chief Hassan Rashad in the room, the presidency said, and the agenda ran from Iran and Gaza to Sudan and Gulf security. El-Sisi called Sudan’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity inviolable principles and pressed for political and diplomatic tracks. |
TEHRAN Iran Executes Hossein Pedaran On Espionage ChargesIran’s judiciary announced Saturday that it had executed Hossein Pedaran, convicted of passing Mossad information on missile sites in Isfahan province, after the Supreme Court upheld his sentence. It didn’t disclose when he was arrested or tried; the allegations haven’t been independently verified. |
NORTHWEST Seattle’s Home Inventory Rises As Pending Sales Fall 14.2%Seattle-area active listings rose 24.2% from a year earlier in August, the largest increase among the major metros Redfin tracks, while pending sales fell 14.2%. The median sale price dropped 5.3% to $797,192; Redfin’s local agents say uncertainty about tech jobs is keeping buyers cautious. |
SCOREBOARD Seahawks Go 2-0; Mariners Win At CoorsDrew Lock threw three touchdowns to Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the Seahawks beat Arizona 31-7 to reach 2-0 Sunday. Kade Anderson’s seven scoreless innings carried the Mariners past Colorado 2-1, though Andrés Muñoz exited with a right knee issue. |
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