Lest you think that the shenanigans that caused the recent financial crisis were restricted to fat cat bankers and mortgage brokers, (www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08) I’d like to share a story. A friend of mine in New Jersey; I’ll call him Stan, owns a few convenience stores From time to time people walk in and offer him merchandise that doesn’t always come through normal channels or with a receipt. One day recently he was offered a truck full of eggs, which came from a man who bought them from a man who bought them from another man. Turns out, however, that the eggs were bad, and Stan had to throw them away. The next time he saw this “salesman”, he complained that the eggs he had bought were all rotten. The salesman looked at Stan the way you might look at someone who tells you the car with four flat tires has a bumpy ride, and said with a perfectly straight face, “Stan, those weren’t eating eggs. They were selling eggs.” Word to the wise – make sure your house is a “living-in” house, and not just a selling house.
By Myron Gushlak
