The financial crisis has had a big impact on the world during the last couple of years with people losing their jobs and homes, banks disappearing and a real estate market which isn’t as healthy anymore as it once was. As this documentary shows though, it has also hit the rich and powerful. David Siegel has been very succesful in building his Westgate Resorts empire by timesharing luxury apartments. He has earned millions which he would use in constructing new buildings resulting in one of the big towers in Las vegas, which cost him 400 million dollars. He claims he’s so powerful that he is responsible for president Bush getting re-elected, which he admits doing in a way which probably is illegal.

He lives in a huge house together with his wife and 8 children and together they decided they wanted a new house. They wrote down what they wanted in their new house and inspired by a trip to France they want it to resemble Versailles. They had so many wishes for the house that once building started it turned out that it would become the biggest house in America. When you look at the numbers, 90,000 square-foot or 8360-square-metre it’s hard to imagine how big that is. They payed for it in cash and immediately put a mortgage on the unfinished building to invest in the company. They were on their way of realising a huge dream, until the financial crisis happened and everything was halted. Continue reading →