Did you make bubble-era investments that left you so far underwater that you needed a submarine? If so, you've got company. Gather round, and I'll show you how some of the smartest and richest folks in America lost more than half a billion dollars by buying into the commercial real estate bubble in the summer of 2007.

The losers are Goldman Sachs, arguably the shrewdest Wall Street house, and the Walton family (as in Wal-Mart), one of America's richest retail dynasties.

Goldman and the Waltons put $1 billion into Hyatt hotels in a private deal a little more than two years ago -- at a price per share more than double that contemplated by Hyatt in its forthcoming initial public offering.

This IPO has come under fire on corporate-governance grounds because Hyatt's...