Concerns grow about the lackluster results from stimulus funding as unemployment increases and more Americans face financial strain. Meanwhile, the real estate industry waits to be swept further down the rapids with the falls lying ahead-dropping tenant demand and rent declines threaten already dwindling...

Fewer communities had fireworks this year, but there was no skimping on the displays I saw around the Northeast spread out over the past week. The Fourth offers everyone a reliable, annual celebration of our heritage--security, freedom, and prosperity. Unfortunately I find in my recent travels, our current...

State governments around the country are in big trouble, ballooning deficits and dysfunctional legislators hamstring officials in confronting the financial crisis. That´s not good news for real estate players. Cutbacks hit slews of companies and not for profits, which depend on government contracts...

In talking to various investment advisors, I get the sense they think they´ll need to promise 20% returns to get investors´ attention in the next generation of fund marketing. Placement agents "won´t give us" any attention otherwise, says one manager. The rationale is low returns won´t sell...

The best you can say is it appears the financial system has "stabilized." It´s at least fascinating, but actually kind of scary when you consider how the government and the banking giants manage to delay confronting the gargantuan toxic asset problem. Either explicitly or with winks and nods, everyone...

No surprise, fewer Americans seem to be venturing to Europe on summer vacations. The euro's advance against the anemic dollar on top of the "crisis" (our economic ills) as they call it over there keep more of us at home. But on a swing through Slovenia, Italy and France last week, many locals...

It's almost as sure a bet as the sun coming up tomorrow morning--interest rates will continue to trend up. Given our outsized deficits and egregious national debt, investing in T-bills just gets riskier for buyers who will demand a higher return. And higher interest rates mean servicing our humongous...

Sean Hannity chortled last night on his Fox News show about the one place in the country where the unemployment rate is actually declining. That happens to be Washington DC. And, of course, his point was that under the "tax and spend" Democrats "big government" is growing at taxpayers...

At a fundraising dinner last week, a board member of the organization was relieved over the decent turnout and the evening's take--well down from last year, but in the black. "I couldn't help very much," he confided. "It's a rough time for lawyers, it's tough at my firm." Law...

Did you note yesterday that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has indefinitely postponed part of its bank rescue plan acknowledging it can't persuade enough banks to sell their bad assets and clean up their balance sheets? This means banks can continue to put off the day of reckoning...