Sy,

I don't have a good answer for you as I think the Realty Group was unjustifiably too optimistic about how well market valuations of commercial property would hold up and also, they placed too much emphasis on supply and demand considerations. However, remember that the Fed (Bernanke and company), did not expect the sub-prime problem to develop into a credit crisis and they did not expect that, along with the explosion in oil prices, to develop into an international economic/financial crisis. But yes, I think the Realty Group could have been more up front about the risks earlier than they were.

 
Ray 

PS I am not a critic of Bernanke; I think he did the job as well as it could be done.