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Contrary to popular perceptions, significant CBD office leases are still being signed, recession or no recession. A case in point is KPMG LLP’s recent inking of a 15-year lease for 260,000 SF in the Aon Center at 200 East Randolph Street in the prized East Loop market.  The accounting and advisory firm will relocate its […]

Tuesday, March 10’s 379.44 stock market spike – the best finish since Thanksgiving – came on the heels of Citigroup, Inc.’s news that it had made a healthy profit during the first two months of 2009.  At the end of the day, the stock market had soared to a 6,926.49 close. So, what did it?  […]

Iceland’s economic collapse, the result of a reckless government and a lack of financial regulation, is an object lesson to Americans who fear increased — but necessary – markets oversight. Icelandic debt is 10 times the country’s GDP!  In the United States, our debt would have to be close to $100 trillion to put us […]

Nine million homeowners can breathe a preliminary sigh of relief.  They may get to keep their homes now that President Obama has unveiled his ambitious – and larger than expected — $75 billion mortgage relief plan.  At the same time, the Treasury Department will double the size of its support of Fannie Mae and Freddie […]

Denny’s, the one-time king of value restaurants, recently tried to regain some of its lost glory by offering a free Grand Slam breakfast to everyone who showed up during limited morning/early afternoon hours.  The $5.99 Grand Slam breakfast includes two eggs, two bacon strips, two sausages and two pancakes. More than 2,000,000 people took advantage […]

Amidst all the depressing economic news of late, it’s like a breath of spring when a related news article elicits a hearty laugh. The rage of this week’s 2009 Toy Fair at New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center was the Smash-Me Bernie doll, a $99.95 devil-suited, pitchfork-wielding effigy of legendary swindler Bernard Madoff.  The […]

The origins of the public/private Federal Reserve Bank is the subject of a new book “Innumeracy”, by John Allen Paulos. Established in 1913 when Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in an attempt to prevent financial panics, the Fed still had an aura of mystery. Even more curiously, the Fed’s founders knowingly created the perception […]

Just in time for the Oscars!

What recession? A recent conversation with a friend revealed the unexpected nugget that at least one segment of the credit industry is alive and extremely well. The friend’s mortgage broker daughter is taking a leave of absence from law school to concentrate her energies on processing all the refinance applications coming her way – a […]

The economic forecast for 2009 is bleak, although it’s possible that recovery will begin mid-year. This is the opinion of William Strauss and Rick Mattoon, senior economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. “We are predicting that 2008 will yield real GDP of 0.2 percent and that 2009 will be 0.7 percent,” Strauss said. […]