Shanghai Fever

摘要

The dumbest investment I ever made was to buy an apartment in manhattan in the late '80s. Prices were soaring, and it seemed like an effortless way to get rich, so my brother and I pooled our money and bought a place for $327,000. Within 18 months, the market tanked and the apartment's value plunged by a third. By then our tenant—who turned out to be a coke-snorting stripper—had stopped paving rent. When I threatened to change the locks, she whacked me on the head with her handbag and warned, "I know people in this town, and you're going to end up at the bottom of the East River." She moved out the next day, but the investment re- mained a dud. After eight miserable years, we sold out at a loss of $17,000.