Okay, so it’s not Thomas Friedman’s personal fortune per se. But it is his wife’s family company. General Growth Properties is a mall operator with 200 malls in 44 states. His wife’s family owns 25% of the company. A while back that was worth $4 billion.

So sound.

But last Thursday, GGP filed for bankruptcy in what Friedman’s paper The New York Times calls “one of the biggest commercial real estate collapses in United States history.”

The family’s holding now isn’t worth much. Friedman is not going poor. He makes a lot in columns, books and speaking fees. But this has gotta hurt.

And, ironically, Friedman saw the collapse of this in one of his columns not long ago when he wrote:

My relatives are in the mall business, where everyone is worried about all the stories of the high-tech age, just around the corner, when you will be able to do all your shopping online from your Palm Pilot, and your refrigerator will automatically order more milk via the Web when its high-tech sensors indicate you’re low. I jokingly suggested to the shopping center folks that they run an ad that would say: “Imagine a world in which you will be able to go to just one place, walk from shop to shop, and see, touch, feel or try on anything you like, and then buy it right there and take it home with you — without worrying about your credit card number being stolen, or how U.P.S. will deliver it, or how you will ship it back if it doesn’t fit. Imagine such a world! It’s also just around the corner — right now. It’s called a mall.

Since Friedman is such a pompous, buffoonish asshole: is it okay to feel happy that he has been maybe a little humbled?