Ponzi was my next door neighbor
I have the honor of relocating a family from Orem to South Jordan. We now have a home under contract and, the positive forces in the universe cooperating, will close the transaction in a couple of months. She asked what I thought at the time was an innocent question. It turns out not to be so. Here we go:
Why Is Suzie (not a real name) leaving? I don't know. I do know that in the last couple of years, many people speculated in the real estate market, thinking the prices would continue to rise. You know... you buy lower, sell higher, live on margin?
Another speculative climate was alive in the 80's. People were investing in real estate markets in Texas (and other cities) and writing the negative amortization off on their taxes. The catch phrase was "sheltering your income". The feds changed the rules and many people were left holding a lot of debt. Being a dinosaur in real estate has its advantages. You realize you've been down this road before.
Lately, I've seen elixir salesmen (in the 1800's it was medicine men) use infomercials and other media to hype markets, i.e., gold, oil, stocks. What bothers me is that they (the drivers) use well known household names like Dave Ramsey, Merrill Lynch, and others, for pushing their own Ponzi schemes, goals and agendas. I think everyone (in Utah at least) is familiar with Val Southwick, Rick Koerber and Roger LaFever (a 1980's Utah hustler) who cunningly sold people down the river to fund their own bank accounts.
Who, in your neighborhood has victimized innocent and well trusting people? Bernie Madoff comes to mind...
Comments(0)