Real Estate Crash

This is the founding post of the blog “The Rules of Work”.

Well, until today I worked for a real estate software and web services company as a Sales Engineer. But they laid off about 1/3 of the workforce this past month, including the VP of Training. Casualties of the real estate crash.

This is the second time that a sector in which I was working was in the direct path of the economic tornado:

The US Real Estate Crash (Autumn 2007) Subprime Mortgage Crisis – Housing Bubble The Subprime Mess Where are We Headed? Subprime Meltdown New Home Sales Hit Lowest Level since 2000. Home construction spending rate nears 4-year low California home sales drop 28% in August Wall Street wrecks real estate stocks

I was in South Korea in ’97 when the wages I’d been making (about what a computer programmer is paid there), were suddenly worth less than what a part time McDonald’s employee makes in the US.

The Asian Tigers Plunge (Summer 1997) Asian – East Asian Financial Crisis Korean won loses half its value Downward Spiral of the Asian Tigers Timeline of the Panic – Frontline/PBS The Chastening