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When An Asset Turns Toxic, Who You Gonna Sue?

NPR | By Jacob Goldstein
Published April 16, 2010 at 4:25 PM EDT
George Laufenberg, manager of the carpenters union fund that is suing over a toxic asset gone bad.
(NPR/Caitlin Kenney)
George Laufenberg, manager of the carpenters union fund that is suing over a toxic asset gone bad.
When An Asset Turns Toxic, Who You Gonna Sue?

A toxic asset — very much like our own Toxie — goes bad. And a New Jersey carpenters' union fund that bought a piece of the asset tries to figure out if there's someone to blame.

On today's Planet Money, we hear from a carpenter, a lawyer and a guy who owns a pub in London. Oddly enough, the pub owner could be the one bailing the carpenters out.

Download the podcast, or subscribe. Check out a graphic that tracks the carpenters' toxic asset. Music: Gorillaz' "Stylo." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein is an NPR correspondent and co-host of the Planet Money podcast. He is the author of the book Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing.
See stories by Jacob Goldstein