He made his billions in real estate but Jeff Greene could have had a great career in stand-up.
Greene's private jet was one of 1,700 that conveyed the rich and powerful to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos now underway.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the real estate entrepreneur, 60, with an estimated wealth of $3 billion said Americans have too high expectations of how their lives should be.
"America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence," he said.
"We need to reinvent our whole system of life."
Greene, who is on the Forbes 400 list, lives in Palm Beach, Florida, where he founded Florida Sunshine Investments, but also owns a string of luxurious properties across the US.
He added: "I’m remarkably long for my level of pessimism.
"Our economy is in deep trouble. We need to be honest with ourselves. We’ve had a realistic level of job destruction, and those jobs aren’t coming back."
"A realistic level of job destruction" indeed.
Of course it's hard to tell just what that means to a guy who raked in billions by gaming the sub-prime mortgage markets. I expect the world looks a lot different when you're on the top perch of the vaunted 1%. .........
Greene's private jet was one of 1,700 that conveyed the rich and powerful to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos now underway.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the real estate entrepreneur, 60, with an estimated wealth of $3 billion said Americans have too high expectations of how their lives should be.
"America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence," he said.
"We need to reinvent our whole system of life."
Greene, who is on the Forbes 400 list, lives in Palm Beach, Florida, where he founded Florida Sunshine Investments, but also owns a string of luxurious properties across the US.
He added: "I’m remarkably long for my level of pessimism.
"Our economy is in deep trouble. We need to be honest with ourselves. We’ve had a realistic level of job destruction, and those jobs aren’t coming back."
"A realistic level of job destruction" indeed.
Of course it's hard to tell just what that means to a guy who raked in billions by gaming the sub-prime mortgage markets. I expect the world looks a lot different when you're on the top perch of the vaunted 1%. .........
