I am sure your Bubbe and Zaide would be proud of their grandson and his contributions to valuable causes. Such a Jewish thing to do 🙂
To answer your question I do not pay dues to any synagogue. Good idea to bargain though? Personally, my charity is geared to providing a Jewish education to every Jewish child regardless of affiliation, commitment or non-commitment. I have a firm belief that no Jewish child should go through life without learning about his heritage.
We are a remarkable people and have created and contributed so much to the world via law, education and science. Our history is something we all should be proud of and inspire us to do more.
Now, back to RE. . . . how do you think the credit market, CDO Swaps and the Bear Stearns debacle will affect lending conditions in the future. You can’t buy houses if nobody will lend the money?
A friend of mine on Wall Street who works as an analyst commented that his firm feels the Fed will tighten towards the end of the year and no mercy will be shown to specualtors. Also, as for the banks. . . . he stated that this liquidity crunch will be painful. . . not armageddon. . .but very painful as the hedge fund bets of Subprime unravel,
