It's hard not to notice that the markets have completely forgotten about fundamentals and instead are trying to bring "irrational exuberance" back into style. Raging bull markets that have lasted for years and years with one bubble after another, and a year of economic slump is just too much for everyone to handle. Instead of markets moving up on good news, they are now moving up on bad news with the only silver lining being it's not as bad as...more
Election campaigns are in high gear right now and everyone has an opinion on just about everything when it comes to which candidate would be better for who and what. I lost faith in the common sense of the average voter, not just in the United States but pretty much across the world. What I am finding very curious, is the possibility that many people haven't realized that that the party platforms aren't the same as they were 20 years ago. Little...more
If an economic sink hole brought on by creative financing and lax regulatory controls weren't enough, there's nothing like straight forward criminal actions to really paralyze investors. As a fund manager of an extremely transparent fund, there is nothing that brings out more fury in me than a few bad apples scaring people to a point of not even wanting to put their hand in the barrel. Sure Madoff is the poster child, but there are a host of others that have created schemes of the Ponzi sort that are equally as devastating to the people invested in them. Now Stanford Financial is being accused of misrepresenting the safety and security of their C.D. offering while also providing returns that the SEC is called in its filing "improbable if not impossible". In other words, they are saying it's fraud. In the midst of all this fraud, we are seeing fingers pointing the blame at every government regulatory body possible; we are hearing a battle cry for some sort of protection through regulation. I do believe that the creators of these fraudulent schemes should meet the firing squad, but it's important to understand that the people investing in these schemes really didn't understand the...more
Though there seems to be an endless supply of other shoes to drop into the current economic chasm, there seems to be a general consensus that commercial real estate is going to take a significant hit. The shoe that could end up kicking commercial real estate down further and is relatively unknown or just not thought about is technology. Developed...more
Recently I spoke with my co-managing partner Michael Facchini, of Regent Global Funds, an alternative investment fund, at an Institutional Investor conference on Distressed Real Estate in New York City. The folks at Institutional Investor did a fantastic job putting it together and assembled a group of very knowledgeable and informed speakers from...more
It's time to address one of the most incredible misconceptions in the current environment around real estate lending, which is the idea that all real estate lending is high risk. I hear this often and I understand where it's coming from since it seems to be the media's favorite topic, but this generalization needs qualification. Anytime you are evaluating risk, regardless of whether or not it is a traditional or alternative investment, there are basic factors to be considered that go beyond a rough generalization. If I asked the general population their risk assessment of government issued bonds, I would probably get an overwhelming response that they are low risk. Now if I were to provide a little more information, such that the government bonds are being issued by the Zimbabwe Government, does is still sound like low risk? I didn't think so, and you came to that conclusion because we got past the generalization and into the substance. The same goes for any type of investment, with real estate and mortgage lending being no exception. In lending, the Golden Rule is don't lend against any asset that you could not easily sell to get your money back. This also works for investing...more
With economies in complete disarray on a global basis, one of the few bright spots has been the massive correction in oil. It was widely speculated that oil was in a bubble and that speculation turned into a stark reality with oil dropping below 50%...more
Everyone needs to consider their investments in corporations that have been using job cuts as an alternative to growth, and in essence keeping their bottom line in shape. With the economy in a recession, it's that time again for large corporations to...more
With the absolute implosion of global financial markets, the investment world is learning that alternative investments need to be private. I don't think there has ever been a better illustration of a "pull down" effect within the last 70 years. It...more
Author: John DashfieldWhen you think about it, every single product and service begins its life as somebody's problem. We all have things in life that we'd rather pay somebody else to do, either because we simply don't want to do it or don't have the...more
This investment perspective comes straight from the rooms in banks that are filled with the proverbial bean counters known as underwriters that are making the lives of hard money lenders very easy and very profitable. It's clear that the banks are...more
Howard Brodsky set out to conquer the carpet world. Dan Bleier just wanted to save his family-owned business. But both cherished their independent status in a retail chain, "big box" business world. Now, each realizes success through a purchasing...more