Trickle Down Recession

President Dimwit and his clueless minions have done it again. When you are President of the United States, everything you say has consequences. In short, his demogaguing "big business" and "success" has had a devastating effect on our economy. Companies are no longer entertaining customers and employees as they once did, and some are are even changing their address.

Don't these class envy idiots ever think about the downside of such rhetoric? Who do they think are the taxpayers? The employers? Hint: It ain't the poor...

Fancy Office Address? Not in this Economy!

New York Observor
Dana Rubinstein
April 21, 2009

Choosing his words carefully, John Powers, chairman of the tri-state region for CB Richard Ellis, told a room full of reporters on April 8 that “conspicuous consumption is no longer socially in.” His delicacy was understandable, representative, as he is, of countless landlords with conspicuously ostentatious buildings.

“It is happening,” said one prominent broker, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to upset his tenants. “I have a client who’s on Park Avenue and wants to get off Park. They feel that it has too much cachet and it sends the wrong signal to their shareholders and to people in general. … People are more cognizant of how they look.”

The anti-ostentatious trend has trickled down to the brokerages themselves.

Every year, CB Richard Ellis holds an annual conference at some balmy location to recognize its top employees. This year, the firm had booked 225 vacation packages at the opulent Hilton Cabo San Lucas Beach and Golf Resort, whose Web site boasts of world-famous game fishing, hiking, horseback riding and, perhaps most importantly for the real estate set, proximity to the Jack Nicklaus–designed Cabo del Sol golf course and the 27-hole Palmilla course, also a Nicklaus design.

“Given the state of the economy … we felt it was inappropriate to have that type of event given some of the other measures being taken and constraints on the other areas of the business,” said Mitch Rudin, CBRE’s president and CEO for the tri-state region.

The firm decided the 225 three-day vacation packages should instead go to dozens of charities, like the Wounded Warrior Project. A move that’s both PR-friendly, and, dare we say, rather nice.