Next in line for a government hand-out: Real estate developers

Bailout madness continues. I'm sure few readers are surprised that the next group to ask for bailout money is commercial real estate developers. They're begging for money because they've got mortgages that are due, but no buyers for their real estate so they can pay off their debt. And something about the world financial markets being doomed if this isn't fixed with taxpayer money. (Haven't we heard that before?)

One firm estimates that over the next three years, $530 billion of commercial mortgages will be due. And those poor real estate developers don't qualify for new credit, so they'll have to default. And for that reason alone, it seems that taxpayers should dish out more money.

In the real estate heyday, I don't recall any real estate developers offering to share any of their profits with me. They got filthy rich, but weren't offering us taxpayers the opportunity to share in the loot. So I'm thinking that my response to a request to tap into my hard earned money will be a big NO THANK YOU. I realize our politicians will not have the same response, and will find any way they can to pass out taxpayer dollars. (Auto bailout, anyone?)

That's not going to stop me from complaining, however. Last week I pointed out how bailout dollars were now over $8.5 trillion, which is more than $28,000 for each man, woman, and child alive in America today. It seems our politicians just can't bring themselves to say no when they're spending OUR money. When is enough enough?

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.