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Re:Columbia University vs the little guy by patio11 on Friday December 17, 2010 @02:24PM (#2017360)
Perhaps I'm biased because my father is a real estate broker and I've heard his stories, but there is a (probably overpaid) profession of people whose only job is to sit down together and dicker over how much commercial real estate should actually sell for. It isn't a T-bill, where you can just ask the computer, or a stock, where you can just look at the transaction for a fungible unit which sold 5 seconds ago, or even a pork belly, which for an agreed upon quality of delicious piggy goodness can be treated as "implements IPorkBelly" and sold quite easily. (Hiring questions: what methods does IPorkBelly offer...)
Re:Columbia University vs the little guy by tptacek on Friday December 17, 2010 @02:32PM (#2017388)
I agree that CRE isn't t-bills; I point out only that there is a spectrum of liquidity, and that on it, small businesses are to the left of antique furniture and the works of second-tier postminimalist painters. I originally wrote "commercial bonds" instead of treasuries, but realized quickly that someone on HN would write 6 grafs on how the bond markets are opaque, unfair, and intensely susceptible to gamesmanship.