Shareholder Value and Real Estate

So many stats recently... Employment is edging up... finally. But private sector hiring is barely registering any increases. And CEO pay continues to go up-now averaging 350 times more than the lowest paid company worker compared to about 25 times in 1960. All this while over the last decade the average worker´s compensation has flat lined. The average guy is also losing benefits as healthcare costs have spiked (as we all know), so his or her standard of living actually has been declining. Then we have the handful of hedge fund speculators, who thanks in part to tax policy and deregulation, can artfully game the financial system. They don´t create a lick of anything, but in 2009 made hundreds of millions and in some cases several billion dollars, partly by banking smart bets on the taxpayer financed financial system bailout.