I'm worried. Barack Obama did business with a crooked real esate developer named Tony Rezco. Rezco owned land next to the Obamas' house and they bought a ten foot wide strip of that land. The details of the transaction make me worry about Obama.
Obama has said that he approached Rezko personally in January of 2006 about buying some of the adjacent lot. To set the price for the 1,500-square-foot strip, which was one-sixth of the entire lot, Obama hired a firm to appraise its value. When that appraisal came in at $40,500, Obama says he judged it too low for appearance's sake and instead set the price at $104,500, which was one-sixth of the price Rezko had paid for the entire lot. There's been no suggestion that Rezko actually negotiated with Obama on the price. In any case, he accepted.
What !!! he had the property appraised then paid more than two and a half times the appraised value ?!?! For appearance's sake !! Is this really the guy we want to negotiate with Republican Senators ?
Robert, this might help you to get over it: http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/03/an-hour-and-a-h.html
ReplyDeleteRemember, it is most important that you remember you must not notice or discuss Joseph Stiglitz work. What is most important is that economists show only a pretense of conscience.
ReplyDeleteYes; I am trying to be nasty. Yes; you and others deserve a little nastiness for smugly ignoring so critical a work economically and morally.
A field given over to Tyler Cowen pretending to understand John Rawls and only showing an absence of understanding of conscience.
Yuck!
anne