Previous Columns
9:00 AM EST, Tuesday, March 17, 2009. Imagine popping into a community where they build $24 million, 16,000 square foot homes on spec and where the local merchants comment that they've never seen the place busier. That was the "scene" at Beaver Creek, Colorado this weekend. Imagine a place where the single family homes start at 6,000 square feet and quickly climb to 10,000 square feet.

Typical single family house up on hill at Beaver Creek.

Naively, I commented to a local, "It's like a small hotel?"

"Nah," he corrected me."It's like a large hotel.

I saw one home with seven bedrooms and 14 bathrooms. There's so much space in these houses they have to invent names for the rooms, like the hearth room and the morning room. The media room was my favorite. It was sloped. It had comfy, couch seating, a surround sound system with speakers as large as my suitcase and a front screen projection (like a real movie theater). The room was fed by a 10 feet high six feet wide, 19" rack mounted electronics system that contained a video server capable of storing at least 15,000 movies -- and having each of them play at the push of a button from the wireless master console next to your couch.

The place in stunning.

This is Beaver Creek village with some of the lifts visible on the mountains. The village is basically fully built with 1300 residences. Gerald Ford made the place famous by having a house there, but then so did some famous criminals, including Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, the Rigas family of Adelphia fame.

In one house there were seven master bedrooms, each with its own washer and dryer. The main laundry, however, still had two washing machines, three dryers and an electric mangle. For those of you ignoramuses who don't know what a mangle is -- and have never craved one -- let me explain. A mangle is a machine for ironing sheets and napkins by passing them between heated, wide rollers. In the old days, mangles actually pumped steam in as the sheets passed through. I spent the most romantic time of my entire life in a suite at the de Crillon Hotel in Paris sleeping in ironed sheets. It was such a wonderful weekend that I spent the next six months trying to recreate the moment by buying the sheets the de Crillon used. The end result was twofold. You can't recreate the moment. And second, the de Crillon rents the sheets from a service who won't talk to crazy Americans about its trade secret -- where it gets its sheets from or how it irons them. The end result -- I can't resist this -- is "no sheet."

What building slowdown? This is one of many construction sites in Vail. They were all going full-bore yesterday in the 50 degree Spring warmth and cloudless sky. .

Bargain season ski pass. Six mountains, unlimited, unrestricted access $579 for an adult and $279 for a child. With this ski pass, you will have unrestricted and unlimited access to Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly and Arapahoe Basin. But you must sign up before April 9. The skiing is vast. Vail alone has 5,000 skiable acres. My friend started one morning at the base and ended up in the afternoon seven miles from where he started. Click here.

The private plane business is doing OK? These were a few -- just a few -- of the private jets parked yesterday at the Eagle County Airport, which serves Eagle, Beaver Creek, Avon and a million other towns that have grown up along the valley in recent years. Most weren't there when I last visited the place.

American Airlines did a perfectly fine job of bringing paupers, like myself and my friends into town.

Recession proof careers? Click here.

Jon Stewart rips into CNBC's Jim Cramer. Jon Stewart hosts The Daily Show on Comedy Central. He shreds Jim Cramer of CNBC's Mad Money into little pieces. Watch Stewart and Cramer go at it. It's fun watching Cramer cringe. Click here.

The tennis continues. FSN is Fox Sports Network.

Jokes tomorrow.


This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads on this site. Thus I cannot endorse, though some look interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Michael's business school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.