DANGER! DANGER!

We've posted and deleted a few comments lately whining about content. Some people want more scandal, some others think we spend too much time dooming and glooming. Sorry, but it's that kind of world right now. We didn't make it that way - we're just cleaning up the detritus and maimed bodies. We post what we post because it interests us and we think cops would like to be aware of it as it affects how we do the job.

Cops (and every other city employee) damn well better be interested in this:

• When Sterling Bay was revealed to have made a pitch to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to help kickstart the developer’s planned $6 billion Lincoln Yards project, it struck Ald. Gilbert Villegas as an opportunity.

  Villegas, of the 36th Ward, will propose a resolution at next week’s City Council meeting, calling for a hearing on a committee he chairs on whether to study the potential for more city pension funds to invest in real estate development projects in Chicago, Crain’s reported. 

  Sterling Bay’s pitch to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund prompted the alderman to take action, realizing that the city could utilize more of its pension funds to invest in local real estate ventures. He plans to bring up the idea in his Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.

We hope we don't have to remind everyone....well, we probably do actually....

Remember back when Shortshanks wanted to bring the Olympics here? He spent millions on the effort. If rumors are to be believed, his people brought along a few suitcases full of money with which to ::ahem:: assist in the voting. The video of Chicago losing in the first ballot still brings a tear of laughter to our eyes, as Richie realized that the votes Chicago had bought didn't stay bought and the Olympic Committee even kept the briefcases!

This led directly to a number of scandals that the Chicago media neglected to cover, where connected people and pension funds had bought rights to certain west side and south side properties that were suddenly worthless. It even led to a largish number of conspiracy theories involving a well connected suicide.

We don't know what axe Villegas has to grind or what connections he has to real estate money men, but we'll just point out a few things:

• China - yes China - is about to experience what will be the largest economic failure in history, and it's being driven by the collapse of the Real Estate market. Read this article from Ace Of Spades about the Evergrande Group and Country Garden. Those are two of the largest Real Estate companies doing business in China and if (when) they fail, it will have global repercussions;
• Something closer to home, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase are trying to offload debt backed by collapsing Real Estate values in blue cities. Why would banks worth billions be dumping long term investments at a loss? Because a sizable loss now is easier to absorb than a massive lost next year. "Progressive" cities chased companies out by the thousands via COVID and rioting. And then companies found out they didn't need a downtown address to do their work. No workers = no support/service industry = less tax income....lots less.
  

As we said, we don't know what connections Villegas has and where, but this is definitely NOT the time to be investing in Real Estate. You want the pensions to go bankrupt overnight, this is how to do it....but you can bet the commissions will still be paid to the middlemen.