Knowing When to “Take a Pitch” [Editor’s Note: sorry, couldn’t resist the baseball metaphor, after last night’s dramatic Twins game!] Just as homeowners must weigh myriad considerations when deciding which agent to list with, listing agents must weigh a host of factors when deciding whether to take a listing. Yes, that’s right: Realtors turn down...Read More
Revisiting the “‘They-All-Did-It’ Defense”They all did it, right? That is, all the big-time U.S. commercial and investment banks got swept up in the rush to cash in the housing market boom — issuing subprime mortgages, booking origination fees, and re-selling securitized debt as fast as they could create it. Right? Wrong. It turns out that,...Read More
First Newspapers, Then Greeting Cards? As goes the Star Tribune (and Chicago Tribune, and Rocky Mountain News, and any number of now-bankrupt or extinct newspapers) . . . so goes Hallmark Cards? It’s hard to avoid that thought watching three kids — mine — react to the cards my five-year old daughter received on her...Read More