carey_jim

Commercial Real Estate Not Immune to Economic Woes

America has had a sixty year run since World War II as the most powerful empire on earth.

Only the very old and those who have studied American history have any real feeling for the way things were in America before World War II and only those who have studied history know what America was like before World War I.

At various times in history, ruling elites have been swept away by historical events and sometimes have been replaced within a very short time by other elites either within their own country or from outside.

The power of the American landed aristocracy was replaced by that of the robber barons after the Civil War.

Hyperinflation destroyed the wealth of the upper classes in Germany after World War I (and paved the way for the Nazi take over.)

The Russian revolution destroyed the wealth and power of the Russian ruling families in 1917.

World War II destroyed the power of Europe and moved the center of world political and military power to the United States.

America has over 700 military bases all over the world and there is serious talk of closing them down because we can no longer afford to keep them.

American military imperialism is hated by people all over the earth and the war in Iraq is seen as a naked act of American military aggression to secure oil for American use.

The American plutocracy is not immune from the laws of history.



On Nov 30 10:42 AM Jimmy Lathrop wrote:

> The sophisticated investors behind REITS and commercial real estate
> entities aren't going to be selling pencils and apples. They will
> come out okay. Maybe their youngest daughter will have to wait a
> few months for her nosejob but it is not going to affect Main Street,
> unless you are a plastic surgeon. We are talking about entities which
> have loads of cash and other assets. There is always Chapter 11 to
> fall back on or other individual state debtor-creditor laws to ride
> out the credit crunch. There are many problems with the economic
> health of this nation but we don't need to worry about who is going
> to buy the mall. Five years from now, the New Yorker will print a
> breathless piece about some filthy rich guy picked up all of these
> properties on the cheap and he will be heralded as a savior and fifteen
> years later there will be another piece about how after the filthy
> rich guy his kids mismanaged the real estate empire and were forced
> to sell everything to protect their expensive drug habits. Meanwhile,
> the other 99.9 percent of the nation will have been going about their
> business as usual.