Who’s the ‘Knucklehead’?? “If one guy honks at you on the freeway, he’s a knucklehead. If five guys honk at you, you’re the knucklehead.’ –“Programmers Keeps Shows Prospects in Focus (Groups)”; The New York Times (5/11/2012) “Ten showings, $10,000.” –Real estate saying (translation: if a home has had 10 showings and no offers, it’s overpriced...Read More
One Examiner for Every $50 Billion(!?!) “I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” –Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, and promoter of the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” * * * * * * “The...Read More
The Two Secrets to Job Satisfaction In my 10 years at Edina Realty, I’ve attended easily 1,000 company meetings — small, big, and everything in between. Never, absolutely never, in any of those meetings, did I ever hear fellow Edina agents refer to their clients as “Muppets,” “marks,” or “suckers.” At Goldman Sachs, that happens...Read More
Proposal Du Jour I literally got 4 words into James Wilcox’s Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times before finding something objectionable. That would be the word “make” — as in, “A Way to Make People Buy Homes Again.” To paraphrase a certain character from the movie Jerry McGuire, “James, you lost me at “make.'”...Read More
Or Was It, “Lend for Free on Crap Collateral?” It’s one thing to encounter distortions and ignorant drivel in some blogosphere backwater. But when it appears in The New York Times . . . it’s more than a little dismaying. In a nutshell, that’s my reaction to Adam Davidson’s piece, “What Does Wall Street Do For...Read More
Is That Like Charlie Sheen “Winning?” John Paulson, one of the winners of the subprime crisis, is having a bad year. Investors are showing unusual patience. –“Despite Losses, Investors Stick With Paulson“; The New York Times (11/2/2011) Did you know that the housing bust has also had big “winners?” People like hedge fund titan John Paulson,...Read More
