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US banks are finally opening their purse strings according to The Federal Reserve’s quarterly senior loan officer survey. Who’s getting loans? Large companies, people with decent credit applying for auto loans or credit cards and also people buying homes. There are a number of reasons for why the banks are feeling more confident: less competition […]

All of Wall Street is abuzz about stock brokerage Knight Capital which was brought to the edge of bankruptcy by a software glitch. Seventeen-year old Knight is one of the most trusted trading intermediaries for many of America’s largest mutual-fund companies and retail brokers. It could have all ended when, on August 1st, a software […]

The country’s economy — still powering along at 7.6% GDP growth in the second quarter, even after a much-talked-about slowdown — and especially its gradual shift toward domestic consumption and a burgeoning e-commerce market, is fueling a long boom in the sector. China’s industrial sector has fallen to an 8-month low.  The Purchasing Managers’ Index […]

Facebook’s first earnings report is now public and it’s making people a little cool to the world’s biggest friendship chain (955m users by the end of June). Facebook made a quarterly loss, of $157m. Since its IPO on May 18th, the company’s share price hasn’t regained its $38 initial price. On August 1st Facebook’s shares […]

My recent column on the Huffington Post reported on the advent on Wall Street into the housing market as companies like Blackstone and Colony Capital commit billions of dollars to bulk buying bank-owned (REO) single-family homes. I agree that there are pros and cons to this program. The clear source of popular resentment is that […]

Here’s a little news to buck up the real estate mavens weathered by the daily diet of recessionary news: Google has signed the largest lease in downtown Chicago in 7 years. It is a familiar story – a marquee firm relocating downtown because of the hip, cosmopolitan appeal and amenities of a CBD — but […]

It’s a sign of the times. Single-family homes, as distinct from mortgages, are an emerging asset class. For decades, investors have bought home mortgages in securitizations or as whole loans. Individual investors have built a cottage industry owning small numbers of rental homes. Institutions have been buying commercial real estate in various forms. Public and […]

What will solve the housing crisis? The Keynesians think it’s a government bailout and the Hayekians think it will ultimately be the invisible hand and spontaneous order of supply and demand that will ameliorate the underwater single-family home sector. Well, could it both? In other words, the government steps in to structure a private sector […]

On June 29, Congress avoided doubling interest rates for new federal student loans. Republicans and Democrats came together to keep interest rates on new Stafford loans, which are subsidized by the federal government, at 3.4 percent. The rates were set to double in July. It’s good news not just for matriculating freshmen but also for […]

The French soothsayer, Michel de Nostredame or Nostradamus, became something of a celebrity starting in the 1550s because of his prophecies in all he made 6,338 predictions in a series of almanacs — everything from plagues to invasions to the end of the world. People still raise his name today when they speak about impending […]