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Contrary to popular perceptions, significant CBD office leases are still being signed, recession or no recession. A case in point is KPMG LLP’s recent inking of a 15-year lease for 260,000 SF in the Aon Center at 200 East Randolph Street in the prized East Loop market.  The accounting and advisory firm will relocate its […]

Iceland’s economic collapse, the result of a reckless government and a lack of financial regulation, is an object lesson to Americans who fear increased — but necessary – markets oversight. Icelandic debt is 10 times the country’s GDP!  In the United States, our debt would have to be close to $100 trillion to put us […]

Nine million homeowners can breathe a preliminary sigh of relief.  They may get to keep their homes now that President Obama has unveiled his ambitious – and larger than expected — $75 billion mortgage relief plan.  At the same time, the Treasury Department will double the size of its support of Fannie Mae and Freddie […]

Denny’s, the one-time king of value restaurants, recently tried to regain some of its lost glory by offering a free Grand Slam breakfast to everyone who showed up during limited morning/early afternoon hours.  The $5.99 Grand Slam breakfast includes two eggs, two bacon strips, two sausages and two pancakes. More than 2,000,000 people took advantage […]

The origins of the public/private Federal Reserve Bank is the subject of a new book “Innumeracy”, by John Allen Paulos. Established in 1913 when Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in an attempt to prevent financial panics, the Fed still had an aura of mystery. Even more curiously, the Fed’s founders knowingly created the perception […]

What recession? A recent conversation with a friend revealed the unexpected nugget that at least one segment of the credit industry is alive and extremely well. The friend’s mortgage broker daughter is taking a leave of absence from law school to concentrate her energies on processing all the refinance applications coming her way – a […]

Inflation has returned with a vengeance, with a 1.1 percent increase reported during June – courtesy of soaring energy and food prices.  The Federal Reserve reacted to the warning signs on June 25, when it froze the Fed funds rate at two percent – ending nine months of rate cuts that it hoped would revive […]

Harvard University’s Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) advances the professional development of physicians, nurses, research scientists and allied healthcare professionals in the Persian Gulf region.  The core mission is to create an alliance between this region and the global medical community.  A secondary goal is to bring the expertise of world-class academic medical centers to the […]

Two trends in international trade worth highlighting: American exports are booming, thanks to the dollar’s current weakness.  This considerable increase in volume has made it virtually impossible for U.S. manufacturers to get space on container ships within a four-week window, especially for products shipping from the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach to any […]

As the United States government commits a bare minimum of $100 billion of taxpayer money to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the final reckoning depends on how effectively Washington runs the mortgage powerhouses. According to the Christian Science Monitor, with the sheer magnitude of Fannie and Freddie – with $5 trillion in home […]