Tell me if this sounds familiar. Property developer aggressively markets a residential community, makes lots of promises about what will be built in later phases, including great stuff like a big clubhouse, and then sells a bunch of units to folks eager to buy in while the market is hot.

What happens next? The developer runs out of money and the owners of the first phase of residential building are left with no clubhouse, half-finished units on the rest of the property, scaled back security, etc. People are pissed off.

OK, we've seen this lots of times. Usually the next thing is that a bunch of residents get together and protest the developer, who hires thugs to beat them up. The local government gets involved and either the residents are told to shut up or a settlement of some sort is made.

That hasn't happened, at least not yet. The development in question is not in Jiangsu or Shandong, but Florida. And the residents are a bunch of retirees, who are really cranky but not likely to protest in force. Maybe the developer could hire a Chinese consultant that has a lot of experience with this kind of thing.

Is this what Friedman was talking about? Maybe the world really is flat.