Not in business.  Not in real estate.

I was surprised to see naked, shameless shilling.  By two public figures.

Begging for miracles.

The first was Toledo’s mayor, Carleton Finkbeiner begging for people to please help Toledo and to go buy GM, Ford, and Chrysler automobiles. (What about the Honda’s made in Ohio?  Too bad!)

Really?  People with unknown employment futures?  With too much personal debt?  With rising taxes?  We need to go out and buy a new car?  With OPM?  (Other People’s Money)

With car loans?

I have a message for Mayor Finkbeiner- Toledo’s problems stem from TOO MUCH debt.   Simply taking on more debt will never help Toledo, its corporations, or its citizens.

Then I heard real estate broker/celeb Barbara Corcoran shilling about 12 houses all around the country on the Today Show with Al Roker.

Corcoran opined that with Obama’s inauguration that in real estate “Everyone in my field is feeling really good”!  Really?

Oh my.

This is delusional.  Amazing.  And hard to stomach.

Again, pushing homes on people who cannot afford them – not the recipe for economic revival America needs.

The market needs shillers, politicians, and lawmakers to leave it alone.

Let it work.

Stop goosing lending.  Stop incentivizing debt. Stop trying to “fix” the market.

No one can fix the market.  Ask the citizens of Iceland.  They tried.  They are all broke.

Prices will find their own level – honest prices.

Some people will suffer.

Some people will go broke.

Some people will be hurt.

But that is the only way to fix things.

For people with a really strong stomach – please read what always happens when dishonest people with ulterior motives try to sell you something you don’t need and cannot afford -  Michael Lewis’ “End of Wall Street”.

Pass it along. (N.B. Lewis writes with real quotes and strong language – you are thus warned)

These lessons need to be learned – and learned fast.

And the shillers need to be silent.