Sam Zell
...In 2007, Sam Zell, the billionaire Chicago investor, (click title to entry - thank you) sold a portfolio of 573 properties he had assembled over three decades, Equity Office Properties Trust, to the Blackstone Group for $39 billion. It was the largest private equity deal in history, but Blackstone did not stop there: it immediately flipped hundreds of the buildings for $27 billion....
The way I see Sam Zell, is as are really interesting study in 'What did he know and when did he know it?"
Sam Zell managed to save himself long before the collapse that Paulson engineered came into play. See, if folks were paying attention and 'reading the tea leaves' and watching people with a 'big stake' in the game, it would have been obvious what was transpiring.
Paulson was in office for over a year as Treasury Secretary when Zell sold his commercial enterprise. Sam Zell didn't accumulate wealth by being stupid. He knew what he knew when he knew it and it was sometimes pure instinct. But, in the case of the real estate market, Zell decided to bail with his 'high priced' properties when he realized that Paulson was supposed to be solving 'the problem' that started to manifest in 2007. But. Instead. Paulson was always in China. Paulson was racking up so much time in China he could probably claim citizenship.
After Snow left the Bush White House, Wall Street sincerely believed Paulson was going to get things straightened out.
He didn't.
Goldman Sachs had too much riding on the mess and pushing AIG over the edge was too tempting. So, while Paulson was distracting Wall Street to China and his travels abroad, Zell realized he was being abandoned. He probably didn't know why, but, he knew he was and that is all someone like Zell needed to know.
The 'Tea Leaves' were all there.
Otherwise, Sam Zell would be panhandling with everyone else. Zell had his ear to the ground and if he knew there was no excuse for the "September Surprise" by Paulson to the American people.
Why would an electorate ever trust these bozos ever again?
