My New Year began this past Monday morning with the following email from a client (a Giants fan): "Now that football season is over it’s time to get back to work". Not quite right for those of us here in New England, but I agree overall with the sentiment (albeit, with this year’s blizzard of year-end deals, not all of us were ever too far removed). Amid last week’s understandably slow news cycle appeared a story in Bloomberg on the growing desire in the private equity sphere for CRE mezz debt. Indeed, the stars seem to be aligning in a way that could mark 2011 as the beginning of a bull market for CRE mezz investors.
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2011
Animal Spirits and Limits of Memory
By Rick Jones on
While perhaps akin to stories of sixteen foot gators in the New York sewer system, I have heard that there is a physiological basis for suppressing the more painful memories of childbirth which is the species’ way of ensuring that couples have more than one child. Perhaps a similar thing is affecting investors and market participants to allow animal spirits to be rekindled this January.
Oh, I think it’s fair to say that there were precious few animal spirits in January ’08 and ’09 and we were all a bit fluttery at the beginning of 2010, but I think we’ve put the worst memories of the last 3 years’ unpleasantness behind us and appear intent on enjoying the delightful frisson of booming times once again.
Continue Reading Animal Spirits and Limits of Memory