A couple of weeks ago, my column on this blog entitled “HigherTaxes Mean Sluggish Employment” created a significant number ofresponses and provided a microcosm of on of the biggest debatesgoing on in Washington today. It is the debate between those whobelieve that the government should create another round ofstimulus, thereby increasing spending to stimulate the economyversus a focus on deficit reduction.

The pending expiration of the Bush tax cuts, which are scheduledto sunset at the end of this year, is prompting heated debate inWashington regarding which of these two strategies, or acombination of each, to implement. If you read the comments made inresponse to the above mentioned column, you will see what appearsto be a debate fit for an episode of Face the Nation rather than acommercial real estate blog.

So, you may be asking why a real estate investment sales brokercares so much about government policy as described herein. The factis, that our real estate market relies heavily upon the performanceof the economy as that economic performance greatly impacts theemployment picture. Employment is the economic metric which mostprofoundly impacts the underlying fundamentals of our real estatemarket. This is why policy is so critical and is worthy of closescrutiny.