I don’t know and I don’t care

“Where in the world is Joe Biden?”

As far as I’m concerned, the only good thing about the election is that it removed Biden from the Senate, where he could continue to do harm and shuttled him off to the dark corner of obscurity that is the Vice President’s natural habitat. No one’s seen or heard from him since the election? Good.

Private schools “thriving”.

In New York City, at least. Applications up, money still flowing in, all is serene. That’s probably good news for Greenwich private schools as well. But there’s this:

Mr. Davison, who also heads the Guild of Independent Schools in New York, warned: “It’s Wall Street that worries us in New York City. If all these financial jobs move to London, we’re in trouble.”

Kinda my thinking as well.

“So this is Christmas, and what have you done?”

John Lennon would have loved this one: Stampeding Christmas shoppers trample Wal-Mart worker to death . I hope the paramedics trying to save the poor bastard’s life didn’t interfere with anyone’s bargain shopping – I’d hate to see someone’s Christmas ruined.

UPDATE: Well I can see why! “Black Friday shoppers out in force, but cautious”.

Whew!

According to this poll, the public blames bankers, not real estate brokers, for the sorry mess we’re in. Of course, that may be because the public already had taken the measure of the ethics and knowledge of real estate brokers and is just disappointed to discover that bankers are moronic thieves, too. I’m okay with this – after all, I came from the legal field – moving to real estate was a step up in public esteem. Wait until I start my used car business and then I’ll finally get some respect.

In Singapore, down-sizers and bargain hunters are the market

Go halfway around the world and find that what’s true in Greenwich is true in Singapore. When they talk about a world-wide recession, they aren’t kidding.

What’s an agent to do in troubled times?

Well, according to this article, real estate agents are quitting the business entirely (see ya – we’ll miss you) or abandoning large firms for smaller ones. I’m content where I am (although I’m glad I have a dusty law license in my back pocket – never too late to brush up on bankruptcy law and resume a career) but perhaps we’ll see that kind of shift here in Greenwich. We haven’t yet, but January may see lots of new things, like house listings from owners who have waited to see whether things would get better (they’ve gotten worse) and agents who have grown tired of conducting EBay sales to generate cash. All in all, it should be an interesting new year.

Royal Bank of Scotland is now truly Royal

I don’t know how bad this news is (it was certainly expected) but it can’t be encouraging: Britain takes over the Royal Bank of Scotland. In case you’ve forgotten, that’s the bank that’s been building a huge tower next to UBS in Stamford with the intention of bringing in lots of home-buying, high;y-paid employees. The management keeps denying any intention to abandon that project but I’ve worried the past few months: what do you do with the place if everyone is back in the fens of Scotland? If they have fens, that is – ask a Scot.