Author: admin

Chicago is # 1!  Unfortunately, this is not good news because the Windy City has been ranked by one study as having the worst traffic congestion in the nation.   The news was one finding of the Urban Mobility Report (UMR),  conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute, the United States’ largest university-affiliated transportation research agency.  Earlier […]

Rising gas prices and the dearth of jobs are negatively impacting consumer confidence and bringing the first hint of inflation in a long time.   The Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed an increase of 0.5 percent in December, primarily a result of skyrocketing gas costs, according to the Department of Labor.  The AAA reports that the […]

The Federal Reserve has observed that Wall Street’s big banks eased credit terms for hedge funds and private equity firms in the 4th quarter of 2010.   More banks believe that credit terms have “eased somewhat” than those that think it has “tightened somewhat” in the last three months of 2010, according to the Fed’s year-end […]

President Barack Obama’s crackdown on Wall Street excesses could be hampered if the incoming Republican-controlled Congress refuses to fund two crucial regulatory agencies.  The Dodd-Frank financial reform law – passed with heavy Democratic support – promised a generous budget to regulate the $600 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market.  Now, the law’s implementation may be derailed by […]

As urban farms and winter greenhouses sprout in vacant lots throughout Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley has proposed an ordinance aimed at “nourishing urban agriculture.”  Unfortunately, some urban farmers believe the ordinance – if passed by the Chicago City Council – might negatively impact the expansion of worthwhile projects that provide healthy food to many […]

Treasuries were little changed after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting confirmed that policymakers believe that economic growth is gaining traction.   Fed officials, however, believe that the economic gains were “not sufficient” to curtail their plans to buy $600 billion in U.S. debt to encourage employment in a stimulus strategy called quantitative […]

Although the Washington, D.C., residential market has held up surprisingly well over the past few years in an environment hammered by unemployment and foreclosures,  there is a question of whether the nation’s capital will spur recovery or if the rest of the country will drag down the local market.  Washington’s relatively low unemployment rate and […]

With the stock market ending its best December since 1987, there is hope that 2011 will see a strong Wall Street recovery.  One source of hope is the fact that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has returned to its pre-Lehman Brothers level.  It joins the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite Index and […]

Distressed commercial real estate volumes seem to have reached a plateau of $186.9 billion in October,  according to a report prepared by Delta Associates that crunched numbers provided by Real Capital Analytics.  The trend has been apparent for several months, according to Delta’s CEO Greg Leisch. Even as the industry breathes a collective sigh of […]

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision overhaul of bank capital rules may cut global economic growth by 0.22 percent, which is seen as a reasonable amount.  This will occur over an eight-year transitional period during which the rules are put into place, according to the Basel committee and Financial Stability Board (FSB).  According to the […]