Realogy and its Greenwich real estate branches

I'll admit to still being a bit miffed at being fired from my Greenwich Post column for repeating what was reported in The New York Times Realogy, parent company of a number of real estate franchises including Century 21, Sotheby's and Coldwell Banker, was saddled with a crushing amount of debt when it was taken over by Leon Blackstone's group, Apollo Management. Century 21 is no longer around in Greenwich to complain (its gold, polyester-blazered image just didn't cut it and they were too dumb to switch to faded Breton red trousers and wool blue blazers)so it was up to Coldwell Banker or Sotheby's manager to squawk; one or both of them did. End of column.

But not the end of the story. Realogy is having a bad year, like a lot of real estate companies, and Moodys has just cut its debt rating to - well, is there a grade below junk? Too bad, says I.

Update
But there's always another side to any story. Here's a far more positive take on Realogy's cash position