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There have been many changes to the American workplace and the men and women who work in it. Since March 2020, many of these, if not most of these changes, have been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet even before the pandemic a social evolution was taking place that impacted where Americans lived and worked.

What does the changing of the guard within America’s workforce mean for the office market? Firstly, the retirement of the largest generation in history – the Baby Boomers at 80 million – has caused some to resign themselves to the fact that we will be needing less office space. But the reality is more complicated because people are working into their retirement years: the raw numbers say that, as of 2016, nearly 9 million people aged 65 or older were still on the job.

CMBS was a $230 billion industry prior to the recession. Today, we live in an era of lowered expectations where every victory needs celebrating as we get back into gear. Take Chicago, where lenders originated and sold off $2.48 billion in loans on Chicago-area properties last year, more than double the $1.20 billion in 2012, according […]

Employers are faced with many tough bottom-line decisions every day.  Because of healthcare reform, employee health and cost of that health has moved to the forefront. We all know that the growing trend over the past 20 years has showed Americans becoming less active, overly stressed and obese. How does that translate into dollars? Obese […]

Despite rating agencies like the S&P cutting the US credit rating from AAA to AA+, the country’s economy is outpacing the 12 nations that currently have the highest rating. Take a look at the indicators – the dollar is at its strongest since 2008, its GDP is growing faster than developed countries, and its deficit […]

Economists tell us that the reason the US is doing better than Europe is because of two things: our equity markets and our housing sector.  And now comes the news that housing is posting its best home prices since 2006.  The widely followed Case-Shiller indexes showed the home prices of single-family homes across 20 of […]

For those who have stressed the need for austerity and deficit reduction, who think that fiscal cliffs and sequestration are a good corrective to reckless spending, it may be helpful to consider what the IMF is saying. Lowering the outlook for U.S. growth to 1.9% from 2%, IMF Economic Counselor Olivier Blanchard called the U.S. […]

Like a good 30’s serial, Congress seems to enjoy brinkmanship and 11th hour rescues. And it was historic. For the first time in 20 years, Republicans voted to raise income taxes (the last time was when George H.W. Bush broke his “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge).  The Senate’s “fiscal cliff” bill passed 257-167. […]

There was a quick turnaround in the NFL referee lockout after a replacement referee botched a call that turned a Green Bay Packers’ Hail Mary interception into a touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks during a pivotal “Monday Night Football” game.  Thanks to the national uproar that resulted, the NFL and the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) […]

Spain asked the Eurozone for a bailout of up to €100-billion to rescue its banks.  This is just a short-term fix for the troubled Eurozone because it doesn’t address the underlying problems in the monetary union.  The earlier bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal didn’t resolve the problems either.  “The Spanish banking bailout is big […]