News

Jeff Horwitz, M.A. '09, publishes master's thesis, two investigative projects

October 02, 2009

Photo/Piotr Redlinski

In the last week, Jeff Horwitz, M.A. '09, a specialist in business and economics reporting, has published three investigative stories, two of which he began at the Journalism School.

As a prelude to running Horwitz's master's thesis as its November cover story, American Banker has posted an excerpt of the project, "A Fall to Remember: An Inside Look at Wachovia's Last Days." His investigation revealed, among many things, that Wells Fargo "initially balked" at a merger with Wachovia after struggling to comprehend the bank's commercial loan book. Previously, Wachovia had engaged in similar talks with Goldman Sachs at the prompting of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"The prospect of a merger with Wachovia wasn't one that Goldman took lightly, but it didn't have much choice. 'The waters were lapping around the first story of Morgan Stanley and moving up the beach toward us,' one Goldman official present for the discussions says," Horwitz wrote.

The Dallas Morning News has picked up an investigative story Horwitz began as an independent study with Prof. Walt Bogdanich. The piece, "Texas Board of Education's choice of investment consultant takes heat," uncovers the state board's mismanagement of school monies.

"Over the past year, board members have twice spurned the investment advice of the school fund's professional staff by hiring consultants that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more than their competitors," Horwitz reported.

The investigation also received play in a related editorial, and a follow-up story is in the works.

Additionally, Horwitz co-authored "Home Loans Brokered By Nonprofits Helped Fuel The Housing Crisis," a Huffington Post Investigative Fund piece on two nonprofits that stuck the Federal Housing Authority with $1 billion in losses to date.

"Little attention has been paid to the role of the down payment programs in the origins of the financial crisis. Government and court records examined by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund illustrate how two large housing nonprofits -- Nehemiah Corporation of America and AmeriDream Inc. -- worked closely with the mortgage divisions of the nation's biggest home builders, adding fuel to the housing bubble and in effect paving the way for even riskier subprime loans by private lenders," Horwitz wrote.