Now for rest of the story – From the Huffington Post. Remember the harrowing story of Edmund Andrews, the New York Times economics reporter who got himself into a debt nightmare and defaulted on his mortgage? He has a book out about it and a big excerpt in last week’s Magazine. He’s also all over [...]

Amsterdam stood at the center of the world’s financial system in the 17th century; its place was taken by London in the late 18th (early 19th) century, then New York in the 20th centrury. Do you think will see another transition from one global financial center to another? Is it time to buy Shanghai real [...]

March 2 (Bloomberg) — Ruth Madoff, the wife of accused fraudster Bernard Madoff, owns a New York City apartment, $45 million in municipal bonds, and $17 million in cash that are “unrelated” to her husband’s alleged Ponzi scheme, her lawyer claims. U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton, who is presiding over a lawsuit against Madoff by [...]

1) Prussia still exists? 2) There’s controversy about it? Outside the United Nations, earlier this week:

Tony Goldman, he of Goldman Properties and visionary of Miami’s South Beach and New York City’s SoHo neighborhoods, and now deeply involved in the redevelopment of residential and commercial space in Boston’s Fort Point Channel, has a profile of his 25 Bond development in this week’s Sunday Times. The New York City condo market is [...]

I love this photo, from today’s Times, courtesy of the architect. The developer couldn’t get the owners of the brownstone to sell, so it built around it. (The article doesn’t mention it, but this situation was obviously more complex than as described – there is no way you can simply build over someone else’s building [...]

Overseen outside a New York City CVS, January, 2008. If you’ve ever been to a CVS in the Back Bay, you know how bad this problem is. Source: Sebastian White

I was in New York City, last week. This building caught my eye. That’s slim. Worse though, you can’t see it, but on the north side, there aren’t any windows, at all. Because they assume someone will someday build another building. Seriously, I bet it will tilt in the wind.

I’m in NYC overnight. It is a ghost town in Times Square, due to the stagehands fight. I’m not a big supporter of unions, per se. Or, more accurately, I should say I’m not a big supporter of a lot of unions’ rules which in this day and age seem less about “equality”, “fairness” and [...]

What/Where: 1BR in a shared 1,500/SF loft at Mott and Elizabeth Streets Looks Good, Right?: Certainly. Living in prime Nolita for just $1,100 per month? Sure, it’s not your own place, and the decor may be a little funky (is that a mannequin draped in tinsel?), but it’s a big space, utilities are included and [...]