Land ho! Now's the time to buy

There are bargains out there in real estate that you ought to buy right now.

No, no, stop laughing. I'm serious. All right, wipe that smirk off your face. Give me some credit. Of course, I don't mean shares of home builders. I still wouldn't touch them with a 10-foot pole. And I don't mean mortgage lenders, big banks or Wall Street mortgage traders. Those are toxic and likely to get more so.

No, the kind of real estate I mean is the kind you can walk on but can't bundle into a tranche and resell. Real assets that don't evaporate when the rocket scientists on Wall Street get it wrong. You know, the earthy stuff they're not making anymore, except in the Netherlands.