{"id":139572,"date":"2025-12-22T11:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/22\/once-a-real-estate-developer\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T11:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:23:07","slug":"once-a-real-estate-developer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/22\/once-a-real-estate-developer\/","title":{"rendered":"Once A Real Estate Developer \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Imagine you\u2019re a real estate developer.<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re trying to entice North Korea to come to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons.\u00a0What do you offer?<\/p>\n

You tell Kim Jung Un that North Korea has awesome economic potential if only it would give up its nukes.<\/p>\n

Sadly, Kim doesn\u2019t think like a real estate developer.\u00a0Being a dictator is pretty cool; the United States can\u2019t be trusted to stay away if North Korea gives up its nukes; the nukes aren\u2019t going anywhere.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re trying to entice Hamas to the negotiating table in the Gaza Strip.\u00a0What do you offer?<\/p>\n

If the Palestinians were willing, then the United States could come into the Gaza Strip, move the Gazans out, and build hotels along the beaches.\u00a0It\u2019s great for everyone!\u00a0Gazans could live in nice homes, and the Strip would become the Riviera of the Middle East!<\/p>\n

Sadly, Hamas doesn\u2019t think like a real estate developer.\u00a0The struggle in the Middle East is a centuries-long religious battle; building hotels is not the same as eliminating the Little Satan; one can\u2019t directly trade money for peace.<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re trying to entice Russia to make peace in Ukraine.\u00a0What do you offer?<\/p>\n

Russia has great economic potential.\u00a0If Russia would agree to a peace deal, on pretty favorable terms, the U.S. and Russia could do some joint economic development projects that would make the autocrats in Russia, the Epstein class in the United States, and probably Putin and Trump (although maybe I repeat myself) much richer.\u00a0How about it, Vlad?<\/p>\n

Sadly, Putin doesn\u2019t think like a real estate developer.\u00a0The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus, constituted the embryonic origins of Russia during the 9th to 13th centuries.\u00a0Oleg the Wise, among others, ruled the place.\u00a0That was the historical origin of Russia, and Putin ain\u2019t giving it up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Folks other than Trump have known this for decades.\u00a0Whatever your opinion of Henry Kissinger, his 1994 \u2014 1994! \u2014 book,\u00a0Diplomacy<\/em>, explains that Ukraine was the cradle of Russian Orthodoxy and that post-Soviet Russia was going to insist on maintaining Ukraine in its sphere of influence.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d bet the mortgage that our current real-estate-developer-in-chief has never heard of Kievan Rus or Oleg the Wise, and he\u2019s probably never read Kissinger (whoever he was).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one reason why Trump doesn\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on in Ukraine and why it\u2019s so hard to negotiate peace.<\/p>\n

We keep offering economic solutions to problems that do not have economic roots, and we end up getting nowhere.<\/p>\n

It turns out that a little knowledge could go a long way.<\/p>\n

Just ask Oleg the Wise.<\/p>\n

\n

Mark\u00a0Herrmann\u00a0spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of\u00a0The Curmudgeon\u2019s Guide to Practicing Law<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate links). You can reach him by email at\u00a0inhouse@abovethelaw.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Once A Real Estate Developer \u2026<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Imagine you\u2019re a real estate developer.<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re trying to entice North Korea to come to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons.\u00a0What do you offer?<\/p>\n

You tell Kim Jung Un that North Korea has awesome economic potential if only it would give up its nukes.<\/p>\n

Sadly, Kim doesn\u2019t think like a real estate developer.\u00a0Being a dictator is pretty cool; the United States can\u2019t be trusted to stay away if North Korea gives up its nukes; the nukes aren\u2019t going anywhere.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re trying to entice Hamas to the negotiating table in the Gaza Strip.\u00a0What do you offer?<\/p>\n

If the Palestinians were willing, then the United States could come into the Gaza Strip, move the Gazans out, and build hotels along the beaches.\u00a0It\u2019s great for everyone!\u00a0Gazans could live in nice homes, and the Strip would become the Riviera of the Middle East!<\/p>\n

Sadly, Hamas doesn\u2019t think like a real estate developer.\u00a0The struggle in the Middle East is a centuries-long religious battle; building hotels is not the same as eliminating the Little Satan; one can\u2019t directly trade money for peace.<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re trying to entice Russia to make peace in Ukraine.\u00a0What do you offer?<\/p>\n

Russia has great economic potential.\u00a0If Russia would agree to a peace deal, on pretty favorable terms, the U.S. and Russia could do some joint economic development projects that would make the autocrats in Russia, the Epstein class in the United States, and probably Putin and Trump (although maybe I repeat myself) much richer.\u00a0How about it, Vlad?<\/p>\n

Sadly, Putin doesn\u2019t think like a real estate developer.\u00a0The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus, constituted the embryonic origins of Russia during the 9th to 13th centuries.\u00a0Oleg the Wise, among others, ruled the place.\u00a0That was the historical origin of Russia, and Putin ain\u2019t giving it up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Folks other than Trump have known this for decades.\u00a0Whatever your opinion of Henry Kissinger, his 1994 \u2014 1994! \u2014 book,\u00a0Diplomacy<\/em>, explains that Ukraine was the cradle of Russian Orthodoxy and that post-Soviet Russia was going to insist on maintaining Ukraine in its sphere of influence.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d bet the mortgage that our current real-estate-developer-in-chief has never heard of Kievan Rus or Oleg the Wise, and he\u2019s probably never read Kissinger (whoever he was).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one reason why Trump doesn\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on in Ukraine and why it\u2019s so hard to negotiate peace.<\/p>\n

We keep offering economic solutions to problems that do not have economic roots, and we end up getting nowhere.<\/p>\n

It turns out that a little knowledge could go a long way.<\/p>\n

Just ask Oleg the Wise.<\/p>\n

\n

Mark\u00a0Herrmann\u00a0spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of\u00a0The Curmudgeon\u2019s Guide to Practicing Law<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate links). You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine you\u2019re a real estate developer. Imagine you\u2019re trying to entice North Korea to come to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons.\u00a0What do you offer? You tell Kim Jung Un that North Korea has awesome economic potential if only it would give up its nukes. Sadly, Kim doesn\u2019t think like a real estate developer.\u00a0Being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":139558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1415414241-B9HKWG.jpg?fit=724%2C483&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}