"The Twelve Days of Christmas" didn't begin as an ode to the holiday season. In 2004 the Christmas issue of the now defunct Sunpost, "Power Developers of Real Estate", caught my attention. As a long-time environmental activist and writer focusing on policy issues and problems of suburban sprawl--through skirmishes from the Homestead Air Force Base fiasco, to the incursions against the Urban Development Boundary like the failed Florida City Commons project, the gushing prose of the 2004 edition certainly felt like a market top. I saved it and waited to see how things turned out.
It would take another three years for the real estate markets to tumble, and a year beyond for Lehman Brothers to fall triggering a world-wide crisis in financial markets. There are significant works written about the role of the banking and insurance industries in the economic turmoil that persists. The top dogs have all been disclosed. But my view, frequently expressed on this blog, lags public acceptance: how local politics involving land use regulations, zoning and building permits, are an essential feature of growth cartel. Never mind the billions in Wall Street compensation: the economic crash was driven by local greed and hubris as well. The cartel would not have worked without the full-throated support of local actors. Every city in the fast growing regions of the nation have their own versions. What I know is Miami, South Florida, and how the politics here mesh with Tallahassee and national ambitions and offices.
Those who played an important role in the supply chain; ensuring that "speed in execution" provided for the easy, quick and cheap conversion of farmland to platted subdivisions, or, condos on the coastline, and destruction of the Everglades: they are all known. We write about the mechanics, here, at Eyeonmiami.
Those who played an important role in the supply chain; ensuring that "speed in execution" provided for the easy, quick and cheap conversion of farmland to platted subdivisions, or, condos on the coastline, and destruction of the Everglades: they are all known. We write about the mechanics, here, at Eyeonmiami.
During the boom, the public interest in safe and affordable drinking water, in a thriving economy based on protected and restored environmental resources like the Everglades, all was burned to a crisp notwithstanding laws and regulations. Florida is the manifest example, and Miami is the epicenter of the boom and bust for the neat, tidy coincidence of political ambition--mostly Republican--and greed expressed as virtue to compliant and easily manipulated voters.
In 2009, as the real estate crash accelerated and press accounts emerged, I began taking note of the comparison between the effusive even ecstatic prose of the Sunpost in its 2004 Christmas paean and the published record of a massive real estate crash in motion.
Along with many others, I had hoped that the 2008 election of President Obama meant change. The historic damage of industries related to finance and housing-- committing taxpayers to trillions in bailouts of the "too big to fail"-- ignited a cry for reform. It never happened. For a plethora of reasons-- well documented by now-- the change that materialized was the change that was politically affordable given stiff, resolute opposition in Congress that continues to this day.
We can do more, much more, to fix the crisis of the U.S. economy, but it will not happen so long as the goal is to revive a failed economic model that is based on leverage tied to housing and commercial mortgage markets. In failing to deeply reason and account for changes that are necessary-- some of which I address on Christmas Day--Democrats are as culpable as Republicans.
We can do more, much more, to fix the crisis of the U.S. economy, but it will not happen so long as the goal is to revive a failed economic model that is based on leverage tied to housing and commercial mortgage markets. In failing to deeply reason and account for changes that are necessary-- some of which I address on Christmas Day--Democrats are as culpable as Republicans.
Lastly, to address the criticism that I am against all bankers and all developers and all elected officials who need, for campaign finance reasons, to cozy up to the money trough. As a citizen activist I have plenty of first-hand experience at the bullying of local operators of the Growth Machine. Anyone who participates in the forum develops thick skin. "Elitist". "Anti-property rights". "Liberal". "Noblesse oblige". Even, "environmental terrorist". I've heard it all.
But I have also spent much of my adult life following the performance of financial markets as a personal and professional responsibility; I was employed by Smith Barney as a registered investment advisor. I have worked for bond traders and equity traders and some of my friends are as successful as it is possible to be in the varied fields of finance. Other friends are developers who successfully managed businesses related to building and construction. I also ran a payroll of a private business involving hundreds of employees: I understand perfectly well how the wheels of commerce work and the benefits of capitalism.
But I have also spent much of my adult life following the performance of financial markets as a personal and professional responsibility; I was employed by Smith Barney as a registered investment advisor. I have worked for bond traders and equity traders and some of my friends are as successful as it is possible to be in the varied fields of finance. Other friends are developers who successfully managed businesses related to building and construction. I also ran a payroll of a private business involving hundreds of employees: I understand perfectly well how the wheels of commerce work and the benefits of capitalism.
But I have also paid very close attention as a friend to hard working individuals and the organizations they work for-- many of them in non-profits dedicated to protecting the public commons (I am currently president of Friends of the Everglades, a non-profit dedicated to restoring the fabled River of Grass) -- and I have watched the skirmishes and battles in Florida and across the nation sap the vitality of a generation.
How this happened is more than a chronicle of financial and economic malfeasance, stretching from lowly city and county elected officials to Congress and the White House. It is a story that must be told.
The fifth day of Christmas
The fourth day of Christmas
The third day of Christmas
The second day of Christmas
The first day of Christmas
As a coda: this long essay, more than 20,000 words, is on the order of a draft and mid-way through its evolution. I welcome the addition and advice of readers, especially those with inside information that could add to and strengthen the record. I can be reached at: gimleteyemiami@yahoo.com
4 comments:
Getting back to the post-real estate bust, what's Len Abess planning to do with the 28 parcels (almost 600 acres) of outside the UDB ag land, that he purchased under the name Archimedes in 2010-2011? He purchased these large, non-contiguous parcels mainly from the Archdiocese of Miami and its front company, Provincial Realty. Think he'll be a sport and donate this land to Everglades National Park?
... an environmentalist, except when it comes to his backyard.
You say "committing taxpayers to trillions in bailouts of the 'too big to fail'-- ignited a cry for reform" but then you say you thought Obama would be the answer.
Excuse me, but OBAMA and BIDEN both voted for the trillions in bailouts of the 'too big to fail' as Senators. If you thought Obama would bring reform, you should have examined his pro-corporate voting record first.
SunPost still publishes every week. On a smaller scale that it did when it invaded mainland in the 2000s. But still alive. SunpostWeekly.com
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