Noel, Coward?

A reader points out that Fairfield Greenwich has removed all pictures of its officers from its website. Fortunately, Walt Noel was such a social butterfly that there are lots of images of him on the net, just in case friends like Buffy, Buffie, Skip or even some now-impoverished grandmother run into him and Monica on Greenwich Avenue and want to smack him upside the head with an umbrella. Here’s one now (that’s Walt in the middle, his partner Tuck on the right and an Ojibwa shaman on the left):

Update: Aw, they’re all hiding. Tucker’s Stonebridge Horse Farm’s webpage has now been disappeared, but here’s the cached version.

Oh, Great Spirit, bring back our money!

Too bad shopping at Hermes doesn’t cause you to invest with Madoff

 

Katy's in the pigsty, you'll know her by her hat

Kathleen Fuld, Dickie’s wife, is continuing her weekly shopping trips to Hermes where she spends $5,000 – $10,000 per trip. Do we applaud this brave woman for holding up so proudly in the face of adversity or should we merely admire her restraint in spending so little? I was inclined toward the latter until I remembered that there are other luxury shops in Manhattan and Kathleen probably has her chauffeur stop at each of them.

So I guess we’ll go with the holding her head up so proudly. Atta girl!

The down side of foreclosure sales

It says here that 50% of all foreclosed homes sustain “serious structural damage” before their angry (former) owners move out. This may be the reason that potential buyers are split between thinking they should pay 75% of what a foreclosed house is worth, compared to one being sold by its owner, and 50%. Banks are trying to unload them and not surprisingly, the banks new low prices are killing builders and home owners.

Update: The article linked to draws primarily from this WSJ article. 

I certainly hope not

Government may bailout Madoff investors

It’s my house and I’ll cry if I want to

15 Knollwood has expired after 18 months, still at its original price of $10.750 million. It looks like a nice house, set on two acres in a one-acre zone and encompassing either 12,000 or 13,000 sf, depending on which listing you look at. It has an interesting history: built in 1999, it was first sold for $5.5 million in February 2000, put back on the market in June of 2001 for $8.750 and found a buyer in July 2002 for $6,49,900 – it went in a bidding war, after all that time.

The current owners did some renovation in 2007 and have had it up for sale since April of that year. I don’t know whether they’ve pulled it for the holidays or just grew discouraged but clearly they’re not in the mood to lower their price. That’s fine, as long as they’re happy living where they are.

What to do while driving around town on open house days

Come up with dumb songs! This one is set to “Rudolph” so that it can be used at public school “Holiday Festivals”.

Download: 18-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-instrumental

Bernie, the bold-faced bandit

Kept his trades a mystery,

He never took a profit,

Reserving those for you and me.

“I’m just a saint,” he liked to say,

“I work for charities,

If I like you, you’ll be rich

If I don’t, you’re in the ditch.”

 

All of the other traders

Looked at Bernie skeptically

How does he earn his money

While eschewing trading fees?

 

Then one frosty Christmas Eve,

Noel was heard to say,

“Bernie with your mind so bright,

Won’t you guard my funds tonight?”

Then how the traders loved him,

Pranced around and danced with glee,

“Bernie, you bold-faced bandit,

You’ll go down in history!”

Schadenfreude

(Set to the tune “Edelweiss”)

Download: 02-edelweiss

Schadenfreude, schadenfreude

Every morning you greet me

Schadenfreude, schadenfreude

Bernie you devil you beat me

 

You said you’d make us all rich, so rich

Never mind the reason,

Schadenfreude, Schadenfreude

Bernie your greed has no season

 

You took our money and ran away

Ran away to Greenwich,

Schadenfreude, schadenfruede

Bernie you made your kids so  rich

Now you’re going away to jail

Off to jail forever

Schadenfreude, schadenfreude

You made Walt Noel look so clever

Palm Beach Lament

Download: 07-the-first-noel-instrumental

The words,

 of Noel

His victims now say

Were to certain poor suckers

In bed as they lay

In bed, as they lay,

Like so many sheep

With visions of profits to lull them to sleep

Noel, Noel

Noel, Noelllll,

Gone are the shekels for Israel

 

He said, he’d make us rich.

Using Bernie’s mystique

But he used all our profits

For the Villa Mustique

Moo oo stique, Moo oo stique

Where the waters run deep

We thought we’d make money

But his fees were too steep

Noel, Noel,

Noel, Noellllllll,

Gone are the shekels for Israel

Half a loaf is better than none – just ask Lehman

Goldman slashes average pay 45%

Hardly surprising news

From a WSJ “news alert” :

Meanwhile, housing starts decreased 18.9% from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted 625,000 annual rate, after dropping 6.4% in October. The November decrease was much bigger than expected.