Author: Tom Silva

New York-based photographer Gregory Holm returned to his hometown of Detroit to draw attention to the nation’s housing crisis by coating an abandoned house with a sheet of ice.  Called the Detroit Ice House, the project was designed to inspire residents of a city with thousands of vacant homes and a foreclosure rate that is […]

Foreclosure is mutually destructive for all parties and something should be done about it.  That’s the opinion of Jafer Hasnain, Managing Principal of Lifeline Assets, the first large-scale institutional investment fund targeted toward acquiring single-family homes that are in financial distress.  The firm’s business model aligns the interests of distressed homeowners, banks, investors and American […]

Capital is flowing out of the Middle East and being invested in real estate across the globe, according to Nicholas Maclean, Managing Director, CB Richard Ellis, Middle East. “The outflow of capital from the Middle East to be invested into real estate properties worldwide has been higher than the influx of global capital into real […]

The long-time bible of the shrinking newspaper industry, Editor & Publisher, has announced that it will cease publication both in print and online at the end of 2009. Announcement of the end of the venerable publication, whose roots extend back to 1884, was met by surprise and outpourings of strong support.  Ironically for a publication […]

Text “HAITI” to 90999  on your cell phone and $10 will be donated to the American Red Cross for earthquake relief in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.  That $10 donation will appear on your next cell phone bill – a quick and painless way to speed relief to a country reeling in the face of […]

Politics may make strange bedfellows, but it also reveals some interesting family trees. President Barack Obama not only has a supporter in the form of Berkshire Hathaway chairman and investment expert Warren Buffett – the two are also distant cousins. Genealogists at ancestry.com found a family connection dating back to a 17th-century Frenchman named Mareen […]

Tiger Woods’ extramarital escapades are costing shareholders in the companies he sponsors, according to a study by an economics professor at the University of California at Davis.  Victor Stango found that the market value lost to firms that had Woods as a sponsor is already $12 billion.  Woods is believed to earn approximately $100 million […]

Gold fever seems to be on the decline as the precious metal fell $90 an ounce in just two days after the commodity reached a high of $1,226 an ounce in early December.  The lion’s share of the blame for the decline was placed on newbie investors, who got skittish in their belief that gold […]

Time magazine has settled the much-anticipated question of its choice for “Person of the Year” for 2009.  It’s Ben Bernanke,  the scholarly chairman of the Federal Reserve, and “the most important and least understood force shaping the American – and global – economy.”  A former Princeton professor well versed in the causes and cures of […]

With the national unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, President Barack Obama is focusing on job creation – the American public’s number one concern.  The administration’s “White House to Main Street” summit and tour is gathering advice from a variety of stakeholders, including business executives, small-business owners, economists, union officials and Ed Pawlowski, the mayor of […]