Abe Ulug

Seems to me there is a huge (HUGE) opportunity for large regional real estate brokerages to partner up with Wall Street hedge funds to buy out inventory in their own territory and convert them to rentals managed by their agents and perform triage on the bulk over the next 5 years eventually selling them back to individual owners. Wall Street cannot do this alone, they need the local presence. Bulk sales means money and organization to handle thousands of properties in every metro so this is a great opportunity for regional brokers, NRT, HSA and even possibly franchisers like Realogy. Another thought, Washington does not have to reward Wall Street, they can provide financing to local brokers to buy manage and dispose of these properties and probably recoup a much higher percentage of the value. I am guessing they will be lucky if they get 50% of the properties' value when they sell it in bulk, this way they probably get close to 75%. Unfortunately, these days no one can stop the Wall Street lobbyist from securing this opportunity for their clients.

Well said Jim. On one hand, they want auto makers to boost CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) or make fuel efficient vehicles while incentivising >6000lbs SUVs through income tax code (100% depreciation in first year if you use it for business.) All this in addition to 7,500 credit to those who buy an electric car (they already sell like hot cakes for many reasons and if you drive enough miles, they may even pencil out without any tax incentives anyway). With spending like this (or giving tax incentives) you would think US government must be flush. The problem is it is broke.

Lou, totally agree. Obama disappointed (kind word) in this speech. Clearly, this is not his forte and the bench of economists he is pulling from failed to deliver a rising star to take the bull by the horns. It appears that people will be electing the solution to the problem which might explain the brutal sell off at the markets today. Which investor can wait 15 months to see a road map out of this mess?