Ward on Words

An opportunity knocked. We're moving cross country to pursue it. Which means we need to sell a house. The first time we sold a house, many, many years ago, we sold without a broker to friends of friends. That house never went on the MLS at all. And both parties walked away very happy. Last time we sold a house, seven years ago, we sold it by owner for close to the asking price in less than three days. That was then.  This is now. And what we've discovered - the market for homes has vanished completely. There are no buyers at all. We are motivated sellers. We've priced our home competitively. Yet let me repeat: there are no buyers. And if you look at market metrics, for several years now, the supply of homes for sale far exceeds the number of buyers. Within any given month, there are several hundred homes for sale, and just a handful of sales. That's grim news if you've signed the contracts and are moving cross-country in a couple of months. The one bit of gre...

I think it is safe to say that Goldman Sachs is one of the leading investment banks in the United States today - if not the  leading bank. Our financial sector has become so shrunken, who else could rival the golden boys for the title of America's Greatest Bank? Perhaps JPMorgan Chase, but as I understand it, they're weighed down by the debt-laden consumer side of banking. That's why it is incredible that the nation's leading bank is so very busy this year fending off corruption charges . Sad for the nation when the leading financial institution is alleged to be acting corruptly in multiple instances.

It will take a while, but you'll find him if you look hard. Page past the metal-clad Gucci model... Past the the starved-looking girl in the Juicy Couture ad (note to Juicy Couture marketing execs: nothing juicy about anorexia!)... Past Kate Moss wearing little more than a purse in a cab... Past the spread on "the Warrior Way" (which has nothing to do with warriors and everything to do with "tattered minis strapped with shoulder armor and breastplates")... Past the story on Tina Fey (but before the pic-heavy story on Robert Pattison)... And there you'll find him. Tim Geithner going Vogue , "on the money," spilling his guts about the bailout, all in the March issue of Vogue magazine. Who needs the New Yorker and Atlantic profiles when Vogue is there to chat with the US Treasury Secretary about TARP and bonuses and all the other topics so dear to the hearts of Vogue readers? The article opens with this: "If last year'...

71-year-old Bernie Madoff was just sentenced to 150 years in prison. For all of us, a sentence like that is a death sentence. He will not, of course, be put to death by the state, but if all goes to plan, if he is not paroled in an inexcusably short period - say like in 18 months - or five years or - in a decade - he will die in prison. Madoff had been stealing money from people for more than two decades. Only instead of robbing banks, in the public and flamboyant way of a Dillinger, Madoff worked his criminality in secret. He stole billions by offering the lure of easy money to his investors. The great dream of America. Money for next to nothing. He was an equal-opportunity rip-off artist, stealing from millionaires and the middle class and also from Holocaust victims. His investment advice ruined many couples who dreamed of an easy retirement. For some of the investors who believed Madoff's promises, their retirement now consists of working multiple jobs, livi...

I have previously expressed my puzzlement at Tim Geithner's desire to create a market for toxicity by using tax dollars to snap up the toxic assets clogging the pipes over on Wall Street. Of course, he'll give "the market" the chance to buy these "assets" too, but if there are losses to take, it looks like, under his plan, the taxpayers will take the biggest hit. The guys over at Baseline Scenario are promoting a better use of these funds - let's use these toxic assets to fund the bonuses of the Wall Street executives who worked so hard to accumulate them. I like this idea. I like it very much. The guys on Wall Street worked very hard - and earned so very much - as they accumulated these poisonous assets on their books. Let that work pay off - use those funds to pay their bonuses - not taxpayer dollars from the feds. The good news - I'll bet there'd be no regulatory strings attached to those bonuses.... The Baseline Scenario folks a...