As regular readers of CrunchedCredit will know, I recently pitched the idea of amending our hoary old REMIC statute to allow additions of collateral after the startup date window to allow modification to performing loans (and to clarify any uncertainty about eligibility of PACE, CPACE and mezz debt). This commentary follows from a note I wrote
Let’s Fix REMIC Now!
By Rick Jones on
This title may be a bit ambitious, a triumphalist embrace of hope over experience? But it’s time for the effort to be made.
With the help of my former colleagues at Dechert, notably Will Cejudo (me being the former, not him), we have proposed a new bill (need a catchy name…help, please) to amend the hoary…
Time to Fix REMIC: Grand Bargain Part II
By Rick Jones on
Last week I talked about the Grand Bargain to fix our business. If we’re fixing to fix our business now, we’ve got to talk REMIC. The Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC) created as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was an enormous boom to the commercial real estate industry. It facilitated the…
A Modest Proposal Concerning A Grand Bargain For Our Business
By Rick Jones on
Let me begin with an apology for not being in print for a while. All that Ho-ho-ho-ing and a lot of mulling over this particular commentary is to blame. Today, with writer’s block behind me, this commentary is about acknowledging and considering addressing dysfunction in our industry.
The CRE securitization business never quite seems to reach robust…
2024 Golden Turkeys: Jackstay Style
By Rick Jones on
Hello, All. The Golden Turkeys are back again – in my first post-Dechert effort. That means I have fewer folks to help me come up with brilliant ideas and even fewer folks to edit my really bad ideas. So, bear with me while I personally compile my list of things which annoy, amuse or confound me at CrunchedCredit…
The Decay of Responsibility and Courage: Saying the Quiet Bit Out Loud
By Rick Jones on
I’ve been thinking recently about responsibility and intellectual courage. It started with my plumber (Note: Great title for my first novel): “It’s not my mistake and frankly, it’s the wells guy’s job” that reminded me of the line, apocryphally attributed to President Clinton, but actually (most) of the lyrics were from a 1968 hit by the Delphonics:
I…
The Administrative Illuminati in Pursuit of Command and Control (Or the Unmentionable in Hot Pursuit of the Inedible with apologies to Mr. Wilde)
By Rick Jones on
The way we regulate rarely works terribly well for the regulator or the regulated. Yet, we keep doing it the same way…a subspecies of insanity to be sure.
As an example, has anyone out there in CRE land taken a gander at the new Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) proposed rule? This little gem comes to us…
To All My Readers
By Rick Jones on
…As many of you, perhaps most of you know, I retired from Dechert LLP at the end of June . As Monty Python once said, “I’m not dead yet.” I will continue to be an active participant in our industry through my investment vehicle, Jackstay Ventures LLC, and in other ways. You will all continue to see CrunchedCredit”
Embracing ESG (Carefully)
By Rick Jones on
I really don’t want to talk about ESG. (Actually, I do but pretend I don’t to bolster my well-earned reputation for balance…Hah!). ESG is so politically fraught…one person’s lodestar is another shibboleth. Tribal totem of the left and right! You get on the wrong side of this amongst the majority of the chattering class (e.g., any whiff of failure…
How to Play An (Apparently) Manichean Election
By Rick Jones on
If it really didn’t matter, all this electioneering drama would be good fun, wouldn’t it? Throw in some sex and a car chase and this would work on Netflix! Regrettably, in the real world, it is less than entirely amiable.
It is probably true that most of us are anxious as the election carries so many notes…