But these days, fewer big buildings are changing hands, and prices are no longer escalating at a dizzying pace.
That may be helped by the fact that prices are no longer escalating the way they did the last few years.
Feelings of anxiety generated by the possibility of saying "no" can escalate into a full-blown threat response, an emotional state in which we have diminished capacity to process information and consider options.
Then, smoothly, she slips into a harder register for her airstrike on rumors about the video of an elevator tussle between Jay Z and her sister Solange: "And we could go around and get some good karma, but, no, we escalate, up in this bitch like elevators.
But European leaders have said all along that they have no interest in an escalating back-and-forth with Washington.
"With military activity reaching unprecedented levels in the South China Sea, there is no guarantee that an escalating war of words will not transform into something more," it said.
With his wife standing by his side, Mr. Norquist, 51, said he was admitting the affair with Ms. Figueroa, who is 41 and divorced, because "there have been repeated threats and attempts to coerce my family economically and emotionally" and "we can no longer tolerate escalating threats and outrageous demands".
"No" escalates to "I'll see you in hell first".
Carol Bartz has been the fashionable Silicon Valley punching bag for much of 2010, and that's no doubt escalating in private conversations in Sunnyvale today as hundreds of Yahoo employees are told they no longer have a job– just in time for Christmas!
"In a Palestinian political context, there is no interest in escalating today's events," said Israeli analyst Jonathan Spyer.
