One of the faces of Greed

Hey gays,

We all know whats going on with the economy! It's the same as always...Republicans get into office and cut the wealthy people's taxes in hopes that by pumping them with more money that they'll know how to invest it and spend it in order for the excess wealth to trickle down to the middle class and the poor....mmmmm Reagan started it and it didn't work then, Bush made it even more of a platform to dive into and guess what it still doesn't work. Plus, why is it they trust rich white people to do the right thing??? They usually don't, they usually pump themselves full of cash and then run for the hills when things get bad and let someone else deal with it.....

The problem is that everything has become so tied into the stock market that there really is not much hope for unsavy people or those who don't have the know how on where to even begin to play.

I bet things were a lot better when companies were private and people that owned them were ok with just having enough, it wasn't always about how much more can I get...that mentality is killing this country and the world.

As I watch all of this Crisis unfold in front of my eyes there is one sector I feel that has been going unscathed, by that, I mean right now it's the banks and the sub prime lenders getting all the blame and of course they should take the brunt of it.


It is the Real Estate companies ethics that no one ever questions. It's weird, they are the ones people depend on to try and get them a good deal, correct, no I don't think so because a realtor only goes by what the "market" says by doing research and they usually are the ones who determine the final price to sell a home. The thing is Realtors work on commission so they want the houses they sell to go for the most they can because that means more money in their pocket. To me it's a really crooked racket. I found this quote by a realtor giving their opinion about who sets a sale price

My job as a Realtor is to help buyers and sellers understand market value by providing competent research of our local market. I am good at what I do, but I don’t control the market, I only interpret it.
Someone once said, “The market may not be kind, but it is never wrong.”

In other words, your home is worth not what I think it is, nor what you think it is, but only what the market says it is.

So this means, really, that a realtor sets the price by "market", not what they "feel" it is worth. That is a load of crap. They want to inflate prices to make more money don't they? Honestly, the apartment I live in was bought in 1998 for 80K an now the "market" says it can be sold for 499K....that is outrageous to me. This really is why people can't buy a home. I think that a home should be something that we live in, not necessarily something we expect to make a fortune on.

This gets to my point. It kills me when I see Barbara Corcoran on shows giving advice about what is going on with the market and all of a sudden saying you can't play the housing market, you should be buying a home to live in and as a long term investment. In my eyes she's one of the problems. Company's like hers are the ones that have inflated the "market" to where it's hard for an average person to buy a home in NYC especially. The main reason I think this is because as a real estate company they used the whole angle of investment to make cash, IE. flipping. You know buying a cheaper home, throwing in a granite counter top and selling it for twice than it was worth but now she's changed her tune. That's the criminal element to this crisis and she was laughing all the way to the bank...it just amazes me that no one ever questions real estate companies and their practices. It seems they place themselves as a third party with no responsibilities for the prices they set for homes.

I'm no economic genius but I feel someone should say something about it. I never hear anything about those companies. I for one can't stand the sight of Barbara Corcoran and wouldn't follow her advice.

XO, BT