Domestic Turmoil Still Threatens US Economy

Jeffrey D. DeBoer, president and chief executive officer of The Real Estate Roundtable, leads a discussion yesterday with luminaries from the world of US politics at DLA Piper’s 14th Global Real Estate Summit in Chicago.

CHICAGO—Commercial real estate executives have been trying to take the measure of Donald Trump ever since he landed in the White House. At the beginning of this year, one of the worries was the possible wholesale tearing up of trade agreements that buoy a lot of the infrastructure that facilitates imports. Most of those fears have not come to pass. However, a whole new set of concerns, mostly about instability, both foreign and domestic, but also about tweets, have arisen, and industry leaders keep trying to gauge how the new administration will impact their ability to do business.

Therefore, it’s perhaps no surprise that much of yesterday’s discussion during a lunchtime panel at DLA Piper’s 14th Global Real Estate Summit revolved around President Trump. The global law firm brought in former US Secretary of Commerce Penny S. Pritzker, former Democratic US Senator and Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, and former Republican US Senator and Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, to hash out the latest news and try to make sense of it all. And some of the signs are troubling.