Build, flip, and who cares what happens once you're out has always been part of the developer mentality. But in recent years a combination of the wave of Wall Street and institutional money, the rise of equity REITs, the decline of local banks, and the emergence of national development companies rips...

Stating the obvious, we all know the driver for most people in the real estate business is making money, lots of it. Nothing wrong with that. And there have always been some developers, who push the envelope. They would gain FAR or other benefits to increase project size and then build uninviting concrete...

We're stuck -- $4 gas and steadily rising pump prices. So McCain and Hillary say let's lower or eliminate the modest 18 cents federal gas tax, which pays for road repairs and mass transit. That only would serve to discourage conservation behaviors and keep demand up, which ends up increasing prices anyway....

My next door neighbor who develops houses in Vermont has three unsold and unrented, and lamented to me yesterday the vagaries of the housing  market.  "You always know where  you stand with the stock market,"  he said. "With real estate it's so hard to tell, and all...

Government waste remains an enduring problem--paper pushers, nine-to-five attitudes, patronage jobs, unneeded bureaucracy, overlapping agencies, backward technologies, earmarks and all the rest. No doubt about it spending is out of hand.

Been shopping lately?

Ever since George H.W. Bush reneged on his "read my lips" pledge, any politician has faced the kiss of death (a lost election) if suggesting even remotely that he/she might raise taxes. At last night's Democratic debate both candidates tightrope walked the issue, while John McCain has adopted...

So small town America is bitter.