With the housing market in turmoil and numerous attorney generals taking a hard look at the sales tactics and unethical conduct of numerous mortgage salesman, it's probably a good time to look at one of the greatest real estate movies of all time: Glengarry GlenRoss.

With a cast including Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, and a script by renowned playwright David Mamet, it's hard to go wrong. Glengarry GlenRoss focuses on the lives of four down-on-their-luck real estate salesmen whose lives are transformed when a slick motivator from downtown proposes a sales contest: The one with the most sales at the end of the week will receive a brand new Cadillac. The number two man will receive a set of knives, and the rest will be fired immediately.

What ensues is, of course, chaos: The fierce competition and desperation lead to moral compromise. I can't help but wonder how different the atmosphere at Glengarry was from those of the subprime mortgage shops that hired poorly trained salesman to sell toxic mortgages on commission. We are currently living through the consequences of the rampant greed -- and frequently, fraud -- that ensued.

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A movie for the subprime crisis: Glengarry GlenRoss originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 09 Dec 2007 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.