June 09, 2008

Best. Column. Ever.

If you only read one op-ed column this week, skip mine and go directly to Kevin Horrigan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Big Bob's Mortgages. We finance anyone. Big Bob speaking.

Yes, Big Bob. I need a mortgage loan.

Excellent. About how much were you looking to borrow?

About $800 million, give or take.

Eight hundred million. That would be our Super-Duper Jumbo Mortgage. It must be some home you're planning to buy.

It's not for me. It's for my tenant.

You want to borrow $800 million to buy a home for your tenant? May I ask why?

It's a football team. And I'm not looking to buy. I'm looking to build.

It just gets better from there, including one of the best capsule explications I've seen of how additional stadium subsidies get hidden in the lease agreement. ("Let me see if I understand: You built your tenant a new home in 1995. You give him most of $24 million a year. And he gives you back $250,000 a year?") E-mail it to your favorite stadium-smitten elected official today!