And that’s the thing. Obama isn’t Moses leading the chosen people to the promised land – Obama is simply reminding the people that they already live in the promised land, and that if they aren’t willing to make a bit of an effort, it’s gone. And I do believe that they’re responding.

The United States of America needs to get back to work building and producing and dreaming. For the past 25 years or so, the bulk of the increase in GDP has been a result of shuffling numbers on paper (or LCD screens if you like). Nothing productive, no real value added – just take a piece of paper, add it to a few others and add a few extra numbers – or decimal points if you have the audacity (and that would be the audacity that marginalizes hope and presupposes cynicism).

Obama is the immigrant who works tirelessly so that he can own a piece of property, and then maybe a duplex, a corner store, a car wash, a travel agency. Obama is also the laid off Detroit autoworker who thinks that the immigrants are stealing all the jobs. He is the Jewish patriot fretting about his parents in Jerusalem – and the Palestinian immigrant worrying about his parents in Gaza. He is the farm worker who risked his life crossing the Rio Grande and yes, he is the investment banker who wants to end his life because he lost a few hundred grand. Or maybe a few hundred million (of someone else’s money).

No matter how much you adhere to market economics, no matter what your fiscal leanings may be, Obama’s call to renewed responsibility strikes a chord. There is still a great stench over Wall Street because of the huge bonuses paid in the financial industry while the investments in their clients’ portfolios were already beginning to rot. Bernard Madoff is the poster child, but the entire industry is shot through with individuals of no better character.

I actually once had an investment banker tell me that he didn’t like real estate because it was too transparent, the assets were real and the earnings and cash flow were readily apparent and easily audited – and he didn’t like it because he was looking for businesses that he could promote far beyond their actual worth. All this he said with a straight face (I was tempted to stab him with my fork, but we were at Starbucks and all I had was a plastic spoon).

Obama embodies this abstraction called the United States of America that happens to be made of real, actual people. I have never seen such a completely cogent synthesis between abstraction and reality that Obama negotiates. Because the economy is not about a few people making a few million each day with their mouse clicks (or algorithms). It’s about millions of people going to work, starting a business, inventing a better way of powering a car, or feeding a family. This is part of why I love apartment buildings, and part of why I don’t like that investment banker. And years ago, I was a lot like him. But I’ve lived long enough to know a little differently now.

43’s attempts to reconcile the abstract with reality were insane and disastrous – a vain and ill-conceived attempt to force an ideology (abstraction) on a group of people (real, living, breathing). Iraq is the best example of this and will probably define his presidency, but the trumping of ideology over reality infected most of his administration and it’s a bit tough to believe that history will rehabilitate him.

Related to this, Bush never asked anything of the American people. After 9/11, at a time when he had a 90% approval rating and could’ve asked 300 million people to do ANYTHING (Enlist in the military, give blood, perform community service, give to a charity, make love to your wife), he said “Go shopping.” Talk about a waste. Obama seems to understand differently. His inauguration speech has stepped up even more of his already-frequent usage of “we” and “service”.

And so, what does that mean to Taurean Global Properties? And to people that invest with us? Bottom line – we’ve always believed that we make our money (abstraction) by working hard and actually adding value (real, solid, bricks, mortar). We have never presupposed that the “market” will do the work for us, nor do we try to simply “tack a little on the end”. We love to get our hand into it! And that, I believe, is part of what Obama is saying – get your hands into it. Grab a shovel, or a hammer, or whatever is necessary. Be productive!

We also hear the call to a greener economy. We see solar panels on the roofs of our properties. We see shared pools of plug in electric hybrid vehicles in the garages of our apartment buildings. We also see a large contingent of single professional Echo Boomers who want to work hard and pay for services. We see concierge services in our properties – drop your laundry off at 7 am and it’s hanging in your closet when you get home from work. We see a renewed urban focus under the current administration, and we’re all for it!

Finally, we admire the grassroots power of Obama’s support – not the efforts and sway of a few high powered, big money back room boys, but millions of individuals that have not been properly heard in Washington for a long time, individuals who heard and read about the great financial expansion but when they looked at their paystub and calculated their taxes and bought their groceries and sent their kids to university, they wondered just who the money was actually going to, because they sure as the hell weren’t better off.

And so, in a departure from most of our colleagues in private equity management, who look only to attract individuals with large amounts of money, we are going in the opposite direction. Our next offering will have a minimum investment amount of $1,100, and individuals will be able to purchase their investment on a monthly payment plan. Details to follow (may not be available in your jurisdiction).

Obama understands that power comes from the bottom up – it’s not power TO the people, it’s power FROM the people. They had it all along – Obama just had to remind them. Above all, we hope to learn from this example, that great leadership is inclusive, not exclusive, and that everyone’s voice is worthy of being heard (no matter how annoying).