It has worked its way into our cultural gestalt that every problem deserves a solution, created, crafted, implemented and enforced by our increasingly paternalistic government. Our government, for its part, endlessly tells us that indeed, yes, it is the solution to…pretty
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Some Dystopic Thoughts for the New Year
Things are looking pretty sweet out there right now, aren’t they? The economy seems immune to all the handwringing over jobs and inflation. The stock market is on fire. The financial community, including but certainly not limited to the commercial real estate finance
If You’re Planning to Attend the Party, You Best Be Sure Interest Rates Are Coming Down
There’s an awful lot of happy talk going around about 2026. Apparently, that’s the year we were supposed to stay alive till. I surely hope the talk is right, even if it doesn’t rhyme. 2025 was a pretty darn good year for commercial real
2025 Golden Turkeys
It’s that time of year again, time for me to give out the Golden Turkeys. As usual, I wait until the Nobels are done so the Turkeys can get the attention that they deserve. I’ve been in consultation with my editorial team,
When the Residents of the Heights Talk, What Are They Really Thinking?
Don’t you sometimes wonder what our gloriously elected leaders, our pontifical talking heads and all those sundry government officials, political wannabes and honorable this’s and thats actually think when they say what they say?[1]
Jim Carey made a moderately
Direct Issuance: What’s Old Is New
Back in the summer of 2017, I wrote, together with my partner, Stewart McQueen, a commentary entitled Direct Issuance is Here – A New Paradigm For Single Asset Single Borrower (SASB) Securitizations. Well, it wasn’t really here in the sense
The Pancake REMIC Should Be a New Staple in the Pantry
I’d like to direct your attention to my ex Dechert partner (he’s not ex, I am), Will Cejudo, and his recent OnPoint about the eponymously-titled Pancake REMIC. (Regrettably, no one is paying me for this, I’ve got to figure out this influencer
A Wealth Tax Is Coming, But I’ve Got a Plan
Have you been thinking about the wealth tax winds blowing across Europe?[1] You should. While weather here in the US certainly moves west to east, really bad statist-inspired policies seem to move east to west. After all, Europe gave us the
Heads I Lose; Tails You Lose
Doesn’t all the happy talk about the state of the commercial real estate economy seems a bit overdone? Transactional volume is rebounding, asset prices coming back, cap rates stabilizing, interest rates coming down, spreads coming in, etc., etc…sunlit uplands as far
I’m From the Government and I’m Here to Help
I’m sure you know the allegory about the camel’s nose under the tent, right? First it’s the nose, then it’s the humps. A camel takes up a lot of room. They’re smelly, they make an appalling din and while they may be useful