wall street journal

Last week, a butler wrestled a rooftop farm in Queens for media dominance and won. That butler was Indra Tamang, the Nepalese man who served actress Ruth Ford for 30 years, and who upon Ford's death inherited approximately $8.4 million worth of her estate: including a collection of Russian surrealist art.and two cushy apartments at The Dakota -- the landmark co-op building on west 72nd Street (left).

NBC New York and Gothamist both quoted the The Wall Street Journal, which broke the rags-to-riches story and revealed more layers than Del Posto's lasagna. Key plotlines, by way of the Journal:

Calling all Russian (and other) oligarchs and hedge fund types: if you already have a slew of residences around the world, how about something completely different that will make you the envy of other wealthy types? We're talking about your own private island or a yacht marketed as a man-made floating island. Ah, there's nothing like the allure of a private isle, where you can forget about noisy neighbors and prying eyes.

With Greece's government in turmoil over the country's mounting financial woes, two German members of parliament have dared to suggest that the Greeks sell some of their prized property assets -- islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas -- to help meet their debt payments. This didn't go down well with Greeks, of course, who are looking to Germany for a possible financial bailout.

The epic drama of Wall Street bailouts and Main Street foreclosures riveted the nation in 2009. Meanwhile, financial industry groups and Washington policy advocates have been prepping for the big story of 2010: The fight over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and with them, the fate of the 30-year, fixed rate mortgage that built the American dream.

The Obama administration has said that by February, it will lay out its vision for Fannie and Freddie, which in some form have been the bedrock of home mortgage financing since 1938. For months now, industry and consumer groups have huddled over bullet points, figuring out their official positions.

On the basics, they come surprisingly close to a consensus. Bankers and consumer groups alike want to essentially sign Fannie and Freddie up as contestants on The Biggest Loser. In place of gi-normous shareholder-owned, government regulated companies on a quest for stratospheric stock prices, the feds would back mini-Fannies that would sell and guarantee mortgage-backed securities under federal regulation. That would ensure that most Americans would continue to have access to long-term mortgages at fixed interest rates, something that wouldn't likely happen if left to the private market.