Category: Finance

Robin Panovka: REITs face a new reality

The heady rush of taking real estate investment trusts from public to private has evaporated in today’s credit-market crunch. And so, it’s time to face a new reality, says New York attorney Robin Panovka, a renowned expert on REIT mergers and acquisitions. We are either in the midst of a significant commercial real estate downcycle, or we are sliding into one, Panovka told attendees at a real estate conference sponsored by the W.P. Carey School Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice.

Jay Brinkmann: A few bad states lead the real estate downturn

The daily headlines are alarming: homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments at an increasing rate; foreclosures are up steeply. Has the situation ever been this bad before? Well yes, said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Speaking at the first real estate conference put on by the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P. Carey School of Business on February 22, Brinkmann said the downturn for the industry is in many ways a fairly typical one.

Financial detectives: The rising demand for forensic accountants

Like ripples from a pebble pitched into a pond, the federal law passed to combat white-collar crime has resulted in booming demand for the specialists who can comb through financial records and follow a trail of evidence. Once simply a component part of audit courses, forensic accounting is being offered as a standalone class at many colleges, including the W. P. Carey School of Business.

The dollar: Down but not out

The dollar has been in sharp decline in recent months — the greenback is now worth less than the Canadian dollar, and against the euro, it has lost 60 percent of its value since 2001. A doomsday scenario has the U.S. economy spinning out of control: the dollar plunges, financial markets crash, and the Federal Reserve is powerless to halt the collapse since cutting interest rates would send the dollar down even further. But W. P. Carey experts Herbert Kaufman and Kent Hill believe that concerns of a dollar-triggered financial crisis are overblown.

High foreclosures but low bankruptcies: Why the disconnect?

Foreclosure rates have increased dramatically in the last year. Yet bankruptcy filings are much lower than they were before the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) went into effect. Experts at the W. P. Carey School of Business examine various factors that may be contributing to the gap and discuss possible policy responses.