BWAAAH! Tom Friedman is going bust!

[charlie]

Mr Flat Earth Turbo Capitalist done lost his fortune:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/11/thomas-friedmans-world-is-flat-broke.html
http://www.kpcnews.com/articles/2008/11/14/greater_fort_wayne/news/hid80754sect_c300fc527d1cf561a36.txt

Oh, he's still sorta rich. But he's spent most of his life married to a billionaire heiress and now the total family trust is worth $25 million. That's million, as opposed to $3.6 billion. His wife's family stock has fallen from $51 to .35 cents a share and bankruptcies are looming.

Will the quality of his "insights" change when his deep background reporting is downgraded to shmoozing with the staff at Motel 6, Olive Garden, and EasyJet? Stay tuned...

[Downtown Hound]

1. Well, he'll just have to make do with what little he has...

:eyes:

See what happens when you support war criminals and their murderous enterprises Tom?

[lapfog_1]

2. You could buy an entire Mall for $500K.

GGP has a market cap of $109 M. And they own over 200 malls, big ones.

I don't think the market thinks much of retailers these days... hmmm.

[bluecollarcharlie]

3. This guy is worth how much??!!

He's married to some rich woman with an 8 figure net worth and he has the gall to tell me, a 28.00@hr. autoworker to just suck it up and move on???!!!
Oh Tom, i got something YOU can suck. Long hard and deep. That's if you can get your tongue out of Wall Street ass.
Asshole.

[lonestarnot]

4. Rich! One at a time! I want to see them fall!

[Canuckistanian]

5. Life seems to be rough for kept men these days

Keep massaging those feet, Tom.

[JVS]

8. The $25million heiress does not get the same footrubs as the $3.6billion heiress.

She better watch out or Tom is going to leave her for a better provider.

[formercia]

6. K&R #5

Schadenfreude.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Ain't it great?

:evilgrin:

[islandmkl]

9. this comment sums up my exact feeling:

"I feel really bad about how happy this makes me."

Posted 11/14/2008 by dayvel

[European Socialist]

10. Let the market work its miracle--as Repukes would say.

[nolabels]

14. The idea of "market" is a farcical charade and bankrupt idea

But at least the ones who profess to this so called god named "market" have some inkling there is such a thing as cause and effect :shrug:

[Buzz Clik]

11. Don't you just love reveling in the misfortune of others?

Hate. It's just like opium.

[Ganja Ninja]

12. I wish we knew how much all the right wing pundits and radio hacks

have lost in this meltdown. The schadenfreude would likely be off the charts.

[Odin2005]

13. A tiny violin playing a sad song plays...

:nopity:

[charlie]

15. Kick

For Tommy. We should cheer him up with a jar of olives and a toy Lexus or something.

[notadmblnd]

16. I guess that's about the only satisfying thing to come out of this economic crisis

That there's going to be a whole lot of former rich people finding out what it's like to be poor.

[RiverStone]

17. Why do some rich people think they need to live in a HUGE house?

I had no idea he was tapped into so much $$$!

And I will never understand why some (not all) rich folk feel a need to show it off by living an opulent and wasteful lifestyle. I have a small 1,100 sq. ft. house and me and my 2 kiddos + 2 cats do fine in a dwelling 1/10 the size of Mr. Flat Earth.

In other words, who gives a shit if he has to downsize from billions to millions... :think:

[Bravo Zulu]

18. THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, No wonder he wants people to go shopping.

Friedman's personal fortune is based on his wife's inheritance of a shopping center owner and management company, General Growth Properties, whose share price has fallen from $40 to 40 cents. No wonder he wants people to go shopping.

November 16, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Barack Obama surely has one of the toughest leadership challenges any incoming president has ever faced. We’re in the midst of a terrible economic meltdown, the current administration has lost all credibility, the House of Representatives is full of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals, and the public is being whipsawed between free-market fundamentalists preaching the virtues of just letting the market rip and left-wingers who think we can punish Wall Street while protecting Main Street. It feels like a mess with no one in charge.
Now is when we need a president who has the skill, the vision and the courage to cut through this cacophony, pull us together as one nation and inspire and enable us to do the one thing we can and must do right now:
Go shopping.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/opinion/16friedman.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=prin
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=11&year=2008&base_name=why_is_thomas_friedman_writing

[buzzard]

19. I wish I could feel bad but I don't, however I would like to know why anyone would

keep all of their money in a single investment, does anyone know why they would do this?

[sarcasmo]

20. Kick.

[bvar22]

21. OMG! The poor man.

OTOH, He could probably get a bailout from Congress.

[samsingh]

22. wasn't he a bush supporter?

if so he should bask in the good things bush has done for people like him.

btw - that's a huge, huge drop in net worth and would make most people miserable.