The Essayist: Reflections from a Real Estate Survivor: A Collection of Essays from the Huffington Post, Dissident Voice and Counterpunch.Com

Potter’s lively essays and commentaries provide an insightful romp through the shadow side of real estate bubbles, busts and booms –and the role of politics and policy in fanning the flames. His stories and analysis from the front lines are fun, infuriating, spirited, instructive, and revealing – a sparkling intellect at work.

— Chuck Collins

Institute for Policy Studies, co-editor of Inequality.org and author of Born on Third Base and 99 to 1

"D. Sidney Potter earns the moniker ‘the essayist’ with his titular debut collection of essays on 21st-century real estate. What makes this collection accessible to all is that it never feels like a lecture; Potter engages his audience by weaving his personal sense of humor with his real estate acumen, backed by years of experience. As well, Potter’s unique decision to leave his pieces in the online format they were originally published in, make The Essayist a distinctly modern reading experience."

— Berkeley Fiction Review

The crystal ball of real estate books…. The Essayist speculates based on fact, trend, and historical data. In a world of unpredictability, it is nice to read Potter’s solid angle on Real Estate. He writes with a sense of purpose and fact. It’s a flipping good book.

— Kirsten Kemp Becker

Host of TLC’s Property Ladder and Author of Flipping Confidential

…..Sidney Potter’s chronicle of this sordid chapter in American history is a very important read. For history’s sake, this book reminds us there is a reckoning still due for justice denied and, yes, applause for sweet truth.

— U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur

Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District

The author’s perspective is from someone who was actually buying and selling real estate during these turbulent times. Thus, he had a dog in the game, so to speak. Whether you agree with his views or not, Potter has an uncanny ability to tell capitating stories that make the reader think about the events about which he is extolling.

— H. Kent Baker, PhD

University Professor of Finance

American University

THE ESSAYIST

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

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Phone: 1 (800) 839-8640

© 2017 D. Sidney Potter. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/08/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8390-7 (sc)

978-1-5049-8393-8 (e)

978-1-5246-5722-2 (h)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits, which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts.

- Josef Stalin

Foreword

"During the 1990’s, Wall Street’s biggest banks and speculation houses concocted a fraudulent and greedy scheme to create false money. The perpetrators became fabulously wealthy off other people’s money, and the largest economic players in our nation. Then, in 2008, their crime exploded, nearly destroying capitalism. Their avarice exploited the very foundation of wealth creation in our economy -- property valuation. By falsely leveraging the value of average citizens’ largest form of savings -- their home equity -- phony, speculative real estate instruments were created and marketed that bore no relation to true value. Local real estate transfer and property valuation systems were superseded. When their false money scheme imploded, our nation’s and the world’s economy was rocked hard. Wall Street recklessness was so extreme, it wiped out since the founding of our Republic the net worth of 44% of Hispanic-Americans households, 33% of African American, and 11% of Caucasian, respectively. This was a taking of historic dimension never reimbursed to this day. Wall Street sucked out the wealth from millions of families. Communities across our nation still are weighted down with the burden of this crisis as evidenced by sluggish home sales, and historic levels of abandoned units and unoccupied houses. Roughly 6.7 million households remain underwater on their mortgages owing more than the property is valued, according to reputable estimates.

These crimes were never fully punished. The endowed money class perpetrators never went to jail. Yes, too big to fail giants crushed their fellow citizens and harmed their communities, in neighborhood after neighborhood.

All of this makes Sidney Potter’s chronicle of this sordid chapter in American history a very important read. For history’s sake, this book reminds us there is a reckoning still due for justice denied and, yes, applause for sweet truth."

U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur

Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District

[In 2012 introduced H.R. 1489 to restore the Glass-Steagall Act. Ranks 8th out of 435 members in seniority and serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee]

Introduction

Unequivocally, the primary cause of the Great Recession is directly attributable to the real estate credit bubble of 2001-2007. Irrespective of one’s political strips, there is near complete unanimity on this conclusion. As a result, there was no morning-after pill that could abort what was about to happen to the United States of America – and the entire world for that matter. It’s no wonder that half the member states of the European Union did not boycott the United States, based just on principal alone. What better way to avenge an economic ‘hit and run’ then to materially affect the GNP of the guilty country. In another words, we let out a burp heard around the world. In the end, America fucked itself, and quite frankly, we probably deserved it.

I had a special bird’s eye view of what happened, because I was at ground zero, in terms of the many minions out there buying and selling single family homes at an alarming rate. Through my single member LLC, called Potter Equities, I bought about $20,000,000 million of new tract home product in what I described as the Green Triangle, which was the geographical triangulation of Vegas, Phoenix and LA. In 2010, I wrote a book about my joyride, entitled The Flip: The True Life Story of How a Successful New Tract Home Investor Went from Zero to Hero, Back to Zero.

The purpose of this book is to make a record of what happened, and to codify a grunt’s view of who the guilty one’s were, who the innocent one’s were, and ways to avoid another drunken stupor; and most importantly, what are the remedies to put America on course (as much as possible). Herein these pages, lies five years’ worth of written essays, as I worked as a contributor for The Huffington Post, Dissident Voice and CounterPunch.com, from 2012 to 2016. It took that long to flush out the thoughts in my brain, and make its way into print.

Other online periodicals wherein some of my work appeared, include the likes of publications that run the political spectrum of ultra-conservatism, to extreme liberal (and liberalism), such as Enter Stage Right, The American Thinker and Independent Voter’s Network, to the apolitical pure real estate magazine, such as Inman Real Estate, who were so gracious in publishing my thoughts on Red China real estate bubbles, to Cuban real estate property rights, not to mention political rights.

My writing clearly takes a dim view of Wall Street. In its most elementary form, the interface of mortgage money meets Main Street had the construct of a pimp/addict relationship. The financiers supplied the juice and the addicts were lined up around the street, like a Great Depression soup line. If one were to pose as an arbitrator of blame, one would likely surmise that it took two to tango and that both parties were to blame for the fiasco. End of story.

However, and unequivocally, the financiers were the grown-ups in the room and did nearly nothing to stop its own ravenous appetite; and as such was willingly to give out a home loan to practically anyone who asked. Ultimately, they started to sample their own product. And as any self-respecting drug dealer pimp knows, you don’t snort your own product.

As a special treat and as a ‘literally additive’, I took the liberty of putting some filler in this book! So instead of putting out another book on the Great Recession-real estate-disaster-thing, and making this book the equivalent of just another damn love song, it’s filled with quotes from essayists, novelists, academics, and philosophers.

As it turns out, intellects say the darndest things. Its’ remarkable to find out what some of the great thinkers and writers over the past several hundred years thought about real estate. Even though condo co-ops didn’t exist while Karl Marx mulled over capitalism, it’s slightly mind-boggling to get his take on real estate. It’s equally fascinating to hear what Abraham Lincoln had to say about property, or Sigmund Freud’s take on property rights. As it turns out, even Will Rogers had a mindset similar to that of a real estate land speculator.

My fascination became so great in researching the thoughts of past movers and shakers in mankind – and their personal perspective on real estate, that the search almost became endless. In fact, if I could have gotten a sound bite from Jesus, then I would have (WWJD). As a close second, I was able to insert a Hebrew Proverb regarding real estate deals.

The pathos of the Great Recession had a fairly wide sweep; from minimum wage busboys, to newspaper heiresses’ like Veronica Hearst, to Ben Bernanke, whose childhood home was lost as a result of a relative not making timely mortgage payments, all of the latter experienced some type of economic pain – or at least embarrassment, related to the Great Recession. These episodes are captured in this book as a way to bring a slight degree of levity to this economic catastrophe, since a reader can only take reading about another’s own narrative for so long. Besides, there are short snippets of high profile homes of the well known within this book, which in itself is always fun to peruse – since who doesn’t like reading about someone else’s home, in the HGTV-esque culture we now have.

From a cinematic perspective, real estate could not be a more sensational and salacious target for movie directors to set their sights on. Included within this work is an article that highlights the 20 greatest real estate, finance, and business related movies of all time. Perhaps even providing some ironic context, in that those that made the movies portraying the vicissitudes and corrupt nature of real estate, where not immune to the contagion itself, whose fast spreading virus consumed their homes as well.

And lastly, what real estate-centric book wouldn’t be complete without some definitions, facts and traditions pertaining to the industry. Hence, either it be how the ancient Hebrews transferred property rights (which consisted of taking off one’s sandal and handing it over to the transferee), to modern day Denmark, which allow funeral crematoriums to funnel excess heat to warm up homes; these are some of the points of interest of the different norms and traditions exercised worldwide as to all things related to real estate.

From a stylistic perspective the essays are laid out in a way that mimics the way in which they appeared in their original format. Hence, the font size, keyword metatags, date posted and even word count of the original essay/article are purposely displayed in such a way to give the reader a sense of what the author saw in front of him as a contributor to The Huffington Post, Dissident Voice and CounterPunch.com. This is a slightly unorthodox presentation style, but I think it works.

D. Sidney Potter

Pasadena, CA

January 2017

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

And the winner is? Expect little change from Wall Street bankers if ‘Double Down’ Donnie and ‘Hottie Tottie’ Hilary make it to the White House

Enter Stage Right / Opinion Editorial section (1,769 words)

My big fat Greek real estate buying spree: Russian investors flock to Greek fire sale

Enter Stage Right / Opinion Editorial section (593 words)

The Assassination of Donald Trump

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (2,486 words)

U.S. Real Estate Predictions for 2016

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,297 words)

What happens if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates

Janet Yellen: Financial muddler or prophetic autocrat?

Inman Real Estate / Real Estate section (1,193 words)

Investor Alert? Move to Cuba, Marry a Senorita, and Buy Flip Homes for Free!

Dissident Voice / Opinion Editorial section (1,195 words)

Opinion: Can real estate be commoditized like Tesla-style cars?

It all comes down to ESG -- environmental, social and governance

Inman Real Estate / Real Estate section (793 words)

Why Chinese investors are pouring money into US real estate

US real estate market reacts sharply to recent stock devaluation

Inman Real Estate / Real Estate section (722 words)

The Warren Buffett Shuffle: Predatory label put on Berkshire division

Enter Stage Right / Opinion Editorial section (661 words)

Lifestyle real estate brokerage. Whaaat?

Trend is more than a novelty these days

Inman Real Estate / Real Estate section (603 words)

Did Subprime Mortgages Just Get Started Again?

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (570 words)

Israel’s Real Estate Problem (South Africa or Bust)

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,135 words)

U.S. Real Estate Predictions for 2015

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,087 words)

American Indian Tribes and the ‘Rent-A-Tribe’ Scheme

Independent Voter’s Network / Economy section (895 words)

What Your Broker Won’t Tell You About the Housing Recovery?

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Money section (787 words)

The Cost of Rebuilding the Gaza Strip: A Real Estate Broker Perspective

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (740 words)

Why We Shouldn’t Really Care about Palestinians: And the Real Cost of Real Estate

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Politics section (1,341 words)

Send In the Clowns

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (970 words)

Mel Watt Lights Up the Real Estate Industry

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (994 words)

Is Non-Prime the New Sub-Prime?

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (809 words)

An Industry That Has No Sense of Guilt: U.S. Real Estate Predictions for 2014

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (957 words)

Failure is Their Daily Business: U.S. Real Estate Predictions for 2014

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (997 words)

When the Price of Rice in China Matters: U.S. Real Estate Predictions for 2014

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,094 words)

What if Nobody Came to the Government Shutdown?

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (833 words)

Why Larry Summers Might be the Best Never Fed Chairman

Dissident Voice / Politics section (330 words)

Investors Who Bet Against the Market: Goldman Sachs Trader Convicted

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,042 words)

Well, That Was Ugly

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,293 words)

The Obama Charm Offense for User Friendly Home Loans

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (912 words)

Zionists Make Great Homebuilders

CounterPunch.com / Politics section (1,648 words)

Qualified Mortgages From the CFPB: Buyer Beware!

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,151 words)

Fiscal Cliff or Fiscal Slope! What say Real Estate Experts?

CounterPunch.com / Politics section (561 words)

What Banks Won’t Tell You About Their Sweetheart Deal With the Fed

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (618 words)

Whose Side is Warren Buffett on Anyway?

CounterPunch.com / Politics section (988 words)

Romney Wins in a Landslide (Not!)

THE HUFFNGTON POST / Politics section (726 words)

Will the Real Timothy Geithner Please Stand Up?

CounterPunch.com / Politics section (1,402 words)

Good Housing News May Not Be Good For Obama

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (347 words)

What a Three House Sweep Means for Real Estate

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Politics section (924 words)

Tea Baggers are the Opposite of Robin Hood

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Politics section (785 words)

Why Ex-Citi Group CEO Sandy Weill is a Worthless Human Being

CounterPunch.com / Politics section (1,515 words)

Why Romney, Ryan (and Rand) Make a Lousy Threesome for the Economy

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Politics section (533 words)

The Fiscal Cliff: Fact or Fiction?

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (873 words)

Are Banking Reparations Justified?

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,740 words)

A Dimon in the Rough

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,451 words)

Stories From the Frontline: Don’t Drink the Yellow Kool-Aid

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,197 words)

Stories From the Frontline: Please Tell Me I’m in Kansas

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,037 words)

Stories From the Frontline: Why Is Mortgage Aid, Hater-Aid?

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,058 words)

Stories From the Frontline: Robo Signers vs. The Silent Enemy

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (1,340 words)

More Smoke and Mirrors From the Bank of America Pilot Program

THE HUFFINGTON POST / Business section (955 words)

Where Are They Now: Subprime Lending Execs Back in Business Five Years after Crash

Luminaries: Foreclosures of the Rich and Famous

Actors/Actresses

Reality TV Personalities

Athletes

Business

Singers

Films about Finance, Money and Real Estate

Real Estate Factoids

Ancient Egypt

Antiquity

Biblical

Medieval

Present Day

Real Estate Facts, Definitions and Traditions

Quotations from Historic, Well Known and Famous Figures regarding Real Estate

Restatement of Quotations used in The Essayist

And the winner is? Expect little change from Wall Street bankers if ‘Double Down’ Donnie and ‘Hottie Tottie’ Hilary make it to the White House

By D. Sidney Potter                 ENTER STAGE RIGHT.           Politics. Culture. Economics.

web posted September 26, 2016

It looks like ‘Double Down’ Donald and ‘Hottie Tottie’ Hilary are in a race to the bottom, which is exactly the opposite inspirational direction US Presidential Elections are meant to go in.

Much has been bandied about if the US Presidential results will have any positive discernible affect on the ‘poorest of the poor’ when it comes to employment prospects and housing – and the general consensus (even amongst Optimists), is that irrespective of who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it likely won’t get any better if Mrs. Clinton occupies the turf – since she is the status quo candidate – but is sure as heck will not get any better if Mr. Trump signs a rent free lease at the same locale.

And given the reality that Mr. Bernie Sanders has essentially capitulated in mounting a third party threat – even if only in ‘mind and soul’, one cannot expect his phantom wish list to creep into the legislative agenda for the next US President, either it be Trump or Clinton.

The choices are pretty thin to none for the ‘poorest of the poor’ in having any hope at all in a future that has the equivalency of a ‘New Deal Society’ – even though that was never on the table in the first place. So what’s left in terms of political representation for the economic betterment for the underclass? Nothing really.

Clinton’s Plan

The online magazine HousingWire reported earlier this year that the former Secretary of State announced a sweeping economic agenda that included some major housing reforms. Clinton’s plan, which her campaign billed as the $125 billion Economic Revitalization Initiative, promised the following:

…(within the) $125 billion program is a $25 billion housing investment program that aims to lift more families into sustainable homeownership, by offering down payment assistance, increasing housing counseling programs, expanding beyond traditional credit scores, building more affordable rental housing, clarifying lending rules and other changes. Clinton’s campaign states that the $25 billion housing investment program targets the blight that is still dragging down many communities, addresses skyrocketing rents that are impacting the country’s working families, and the barriers that prevent many families from becoming homeowners. Homeownership is about more than just owning a home. It is about putting roots down in a community with better schools, safer streets and good jobs, Clinton’s campaign states. HousingWire, February 16, 2016

Trump’s Plan

The contradiction within the Trump manifesto on housing is that he desperately wants the ‘black and brown’ of America to support his version of a Make America Great Again campaign, which is code for ‘Make America White Again’ – and back to the good old days when ‘white was right’ and when America was more of a Norman Rockwell world vs. a melting pot of sorts that Trump seems to be implicitly repulsed by.

Although the Trump organization has not presented a revitalization plan to the scale of Clinton’s, he has come out forcibly against – and would rescind, HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. This is a rule that believes and claims that the rule tramples on local decision-making in community planning.

What the rule does in fact is exactly the opposite of what Trump proclaims. According to the National Low Income Housing Authority, a non-partisan think tank:

Contrary to such claims, the AFFH rule affirms that states and localities control the development and implementation of solutions for removing barriers to housing opportunity. The rule is designed to provide state and local governments with the guidance and tools they need to better address such barriers and to help ensure federal funds are more fairly and effectively invested in communities across America. National Low Income Housing Authority, June 13, 2016

The Third Party Alternative Plan

The black and brown of this country might find refuge in the Green Party with the almost ascendancy of Jill Stein. She does have a black running mate by the way whose last name is Baraka. (Believe me, you can’t make this stuff up. Not in this election year). But before you laugh, remember it was the Green Party that pulled a presidential upset in the 2000 election by effectively siphoning off votes from Albert Gore, Jr., which resulted in George Bush, Jr. getting the electoral votes to call the presidency, even though Gore won the popular vote.

However, for some voters of the two party elk, the Green Party got hijacked last year when they became the party of maladjusted miscreants, given their advertised support of treasonous misfits – at the locale and international level, with the vocal support of Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, etc.

Even for those that may not take politics seriously – and especially for those at the base of the economic totem pole, throwing your vote behind those that wish to economically assist you becomes a trying matter for the conscious if for no other reason