Jon Stewart: “We’re All Going to Die!!” Want a connecting thread running through the news lately (assuming you’re still watching/listening)? Be afraid. Very afraid. “No News is Good News,” Updated Whether it’s your bank account, your home, or even your person (“did that man on the plane look sick??”) — the mainstream media (“MSM”) message...Read More
Calendar Confusion Edina Realty – City Lakes has eight homes on today’s Broker Tour (that’s a lot). And it’s not just my office: the list of homes on tour, market-wide, is more characteristic of March or April, not early August, when things are typically slower. That’s good news for Twin Cities Buyers, less so for Sellers, who...Read More
“Why Isn’t My House Selling If the Market’s So Hot?!?” If you estimate — as most Realtors do — that the mainstream media (“MSM”) lags the housing market by 3-4 months, what do you suppose the real estate headline(s) will be in early 2014? That Buyers have become scarcer and more cautious. That’s particularly the...Read More
David vs. Goliath(s) Once upon a time (like in the ’90’s), my Op-Ed pieces, letters to the editor, etc. were regularly published by The Star Tribune, City Business, and even The New York Times. I stopped counting, but not before the tally reached several dozen pieces. In the intervening 20 years or, I don’t think that I’ve become a worse writer,...Read More
First, the Trial Balloons What is all this fuss I hear about the Supreme Court decision on a “deaf” penalty? It’s terrible! Deaf people have enough problems as it is! –Befuddled spinster Emily Litella, one of Gilda Radner’s several characters on the original Saturday Night Live. Emily Litella comes to mind as the murmuring about...Read More
Making the Janitor’s Annual Salary . . . Every 3 Hours! The inimitable (and frequently bombastic) Barry Ritholtz, author of The Big Picture blog, has a great post today dissecting absurd CEO compensation titled “American Pastime: Overpaying CEO’s.” His piece basically picks up where my post last Thursday (“Parsing Occidental CEO Ray Irani’s ‘Excellent Performance'”)...Read More
