On the homebuilders in 2007: A-B-S.

Glengarry Glen Ross:

Moss: What's your name?

Blake: *&^% YOU, that's my name!! You know why, Mister? 'Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove a eighty thousand dollar BMW. That's my name!!

....

Because only one thing counts in this life! Get them to sign on the line which is dotted! You hear me, you &^%$#@ &*$%&$&?

(Blake flips over a blackboard which has two sets of letters on it: ABC, and AIDA.)

Blake: A-B-C. A-always, B-be, C-closing. Always be closing! Always be closing!!

....

Moss: You're such a hero, you're so rich. Why you coming down here and waste your time on a bunch of bums?
(Blake sits and takes off his gold watch)

Blake: You see this watch? You see this watch?

Moss: Yeah.

Blake: That watch cost more than your car. I made $970,000 last year. How much you make? You see, pal, that's who I am. And you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a ^&$@.

....

I can go out there tonight with the materials you got, make myself fifteen thousand dollars! Tonight! In two hours! Can you? Can you? Go and do likewise! A-I-D-A!! Get mad! You sons of bitches! Get mad!! You know what it takes to sell real estate?
(He pulls something out of his briefcase)

Blake: It takes brass balls to sell real estate.

-----------------------------------

And on the homebuilders in 2007, I say:

A-B-S!

A-always, B-be, S-shorting.

Always be shorting!

Always be shorting!!

I'm being slightly tongue in cheek here, but I imagine that there were scenes in the real estate/mortgage business over the past few years that had some interesting parallels with the above scene.

What a mess. And they really jammed 'em in at the end, didn't they?

Still probably some meat on the bone on the short side, I think, and Centex is a particular 'favorite' of mine; Florida, California, up and down the coasts, what more exposure could you ask for?

Scary reading:

The Economist: Cracks in the Facade.

And the always great blog that covers the housing mess: Calculated Risk.