"Oh, wow, no wonder I got into real estate financing."

[Chris Mason]

Some old buddies of mine were randomly talking about Zimbabwe on facebook, and as the conversation progressed I ended up posting parts of an old college essay I wrote about the country's 2009 economic recovery. Whenever a PolSci essay assignment started with "pick a country, and discuss..." I would always either pick Argentina or Zimbabwe. I'm now re-reading that old essay, and I can't help but think this research paper played a role in what I now do for a living.

I'm mostly on the left politically, but one of my friends called it a "Ron Paul porn novel," much to my surprise. This is the fancy academic me 5 years ago right before graduating from UC Berkeley, not the me that you will speak with if you call today who is just a little more rough around the edges after seeing one too many chickens attack one too many appraisers kill a deal (why is my niche "properties with appraiser-attacking chickens" again? How did that happen, exactly? I'm in Oakland, not Nebraska...). 

Five years ago, I apparently felt that the "reestablishment of credible property" was the primary driver of that particular economic recovery. I argued that government-mandated land redistribution, transfer to the US Dollar instead of local currency for exchanges of goods and services, and economic re-liberalization (I added an extra "re" in the essay for some reason) didn't cut it to explain what happened. I argued that it was all about the concept of OWNING real estate, and that actually meaning something, if you wanted to explain that economic recovery. It was mostly an agricultural story, if you believe me from 5 years ago anyways, but there are many parallels to residential. 

It is certainly not fit for any form of academic peer review, but I figured it would be right up the alley of some here. 

Enjoy, and forgive all the typos, most of that was probably typed at 2 AM the night before it was due!