Posted on 04/20/2009 4:25:04 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman didn't have a column in yesterday's paper. Was it because the company that his wife's fortune is invested in went bankrupt last week, and he's too sad to type?
General Growth Properties filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, which is notable because it's one of the nation's largest mall operators, with 200 malls in 44 states—the Times called the company's failure "one of the biggest commercial real estate collapses in United States history."
It's also notable because Friedman's wife, Ann Bucksbaum Friedman, is an heir to the family that founded GGP, and her family still owns about a quarter of the company. Two years ago, a quarter of GGP was worth more than $4 billion. Today it's worth less than an olive tree. Friedman does OK—incomprehensibly so—with his books and speaking gigs, so he's got a little breathing room. Still, it's got to hurt when your spouse's family loses $4 billion.
Here's what Friedman had to say about his family's business back in 2000:
My relatives are in the mall business, where everyone is worried about all the stories of the high-tech age, just around the corner, when you will be able to do all your shopping online from your Palm Pilot, and your refrigerator will automatically order more milk via the Web when its high-tech sensors indicate you're low. I jokingly suggested to the shopping center folks that they run an ad that would say: "Imagine a world in which you will be able to go to just one place, walk from shop to shop, and see, touch, feel or try on anything you like, and then buy it right there and take it home with you — without worrying about your credit card number being stolen, or how U.P.S. will deliver it, or how you will ship it back if it doesn't fit. Imagine such a world! It's also just around the corner — right now. It's called a mall."
Man that guy's a genius. GGP should have hired him as a marketing consultant. We were kind of excited to see what Friedman might have to say about his relatives' business latest challenge, but the Times' said he was "off" yesterday.
The Times catalogued GGP's woes last week, but they didn't mention Friedman's connection.
The World is Flat
They simply overleveraged a very good company and ruined it.
Any first year finance guy could have predicted it. You get these go go leverage people and they refuse to take a solid look at a “stress test”..
So, it all go to show you..that these guys that write this supposed wisdom are just as dumb as the rest of us.
Appears to be a real,genuine, cheese-eating Monkey:-)
Friedman can thank Barney Fwanks, Chris Dodd, ACORN, and a pathetically lazy federal government that cared more about winning elections than sound economic policies that would make the mall ownership business profitable.
Flat Broke
He can always follow my advice and eat s___.
That goes for everyone at that rag.
Answer: Flat Broke
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2nd Answer: Agreed!
They’re just a dumb as we are, but we let them run our lives. How can we fix that?
Heard Mr. Friedman on Dennis Miller’s show a few weeks back promoting a book. He kept saying that he was a capitalist, but he wants a minimum price on a gallon of gas of $4.00. He tries to portray himself as a reasonable nutter. Here’s the book he was promoting:
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America.
He can always get a gig on Oprah bashing America.
Where did you find that picture? Is it the Webster’s Dictionary illustration for the word “blowbag”?
This thread made my day. Thanks so much.
I'm sure he is, for him, his book and his family, but it's a life style at the whim of liberal elites for everyone else.
He’s a bright guy. Some of his work is brilliant.
He has no in between...sometimes he;s really smart and other times he’s UBER STUPID!
Exactly right.
Are you sure that’s not Ron Jeremy in that pic???
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