As Dow Plummets, Rich Lady Finds Her Rolls-Royce "Inappropriate"
As Atrios likes to say: Wheee! If you don't have a sled, you can enjoy a vicarious, bumpy downward slide via the Dow, which at this writing hovers around 6850. AIG's astonishing $61.7 billion 4th-Quarter loss and the resignation of Freddie Mac boss David Moffett can't be helping. The Smart Asset puts it all in perspective; just keep scrolling down, down, down.
Speaking of perspective, all this bad news adds a tinge, not to say a pallor, to today's Times story about super-realtor Sharon Baum's Rolls-Royce. "She has come to feel deeply uncomfortable riding around in the Rolls," says the Times; "With the recession, it's not an appropriate time," says Baum. We are more of Max Bialystock's point of view -- when you've got it, flaunt it! -- and wonder, because the Times doesn't make it clear, what grounds of inappropriateness she finds in the car. Does she think it signals to clients that she's too insensitive to market realities to handle their business, or does she worry that angry neo-hobos will throw rocks at it? In any case she is willing to renegotiate her lease on the Rolls and may wind up spending more money just to drive down, so to speak. We think that says more about the mentality that got us to this pretty pass than the Rolls itself.
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