According to a report by Jessica Holzer of Dow Jones Newswires (as published here on NASDAQ.com), Rep. Walt Minnick (D., Idaho) expected to introduce a measure last Thursday with co-sponsors from both parties, while three senators were working on companion legislation in the upper chamber that would authorize the U.S. Treasury to provide as much as $15 billion to $25 billion in guarantees on new loans to the sector.
This would be welcome news for those who are anxious about the commercial real estate market.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Wasn't commercial real estate supposed to crash?
There seem to be two views on the economic horizon: 1) Things are going to get much worse; 2)Things are not going to get much worse.
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Ross Douthat summarizes then dismisses the prevailing, former view well in a recent column (7/7/10 as published in Chattanooga Times Free Press.) Titled "The Pessimism Bubble and the Economy". His observation that " the Pew Research Center found that less than half of Americans expect that their children will enjoy a higher standard of living than their own" brings to the mind of anyone who lived through it similar comments during the last days of the Carter administration. Douthat observes this and other similarities between the current economic environment and that from the Carter era, and era punctuated by Carter's “malaise speech”, but followed by one of the longest periods of sustained growth in American history. Douthat concludes by labelling his column a "pep talk".
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Ross Douthat summarizes then dismisses the prevailing, former view well in a recent column (7/7/10 as published in Chattanooga Times Free Press.) Titled "The Pessimism Bubble and the Economy". His observation that " the Pew Research Center found that less than half of Americans expect that their children will enjoy a higher standard of living than their own" brings to the mind of anyone who lived through it similar comments during the last days of the Carter administration. Douthat observes this and other similarities between the current economic environment and that from the Carter era, and era punctuated by Carter's “malaise speech”, but followed by one of the longest periods of sustained growth in American history. Douthat concludes by labelling his column a "pep talk".
Financial News USA gives some credence to the latter view and more than a pep talk in an article Wasn't commercial real estate supposed to crash? - Financial News USA. The article cites voices that contradict the dire outlook from last spring's report from a Congressional Oversight Panel, which predicted -without qualification - that the commercial real estate market would crash in much the same way the residential market did, taking with it a number of small banks, the small-business credit markets, and indeed the entire US economy.
Markets have a way of absorbing dire long-term predictions, and the Financial News article analyzes how some of that absorbtion is taking place, and perhaps proving the Congressional Oversight Panel wrong.
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