Think Like a Champion

2009 will not be the Endless Summer—

but it may be the beginning of Spring.

—Thomas J. Barrack, Jr.

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The Good,

the Bad, and the

Rogue Wave

M

y friend Tom Barrack of Colony Capital is a brilliant guy,
and he sent me an article he wrote in late November of
2008 with the headline: “Today’s Debt is Equity Plus a Few
Suggestions to Help President-Elect Obama Ease the Pain.” He
bullet-pointed the latest events pertaining to the economy—
twenty-two of them—and I realized that at any other time, just a
few of these would be huge topics in themselves. It’s a good indi-
cation of how alert we need to be.
His CliffsNotes summary: “Real estate is experiencing a seis-
mic liquidity shock as a result of a complete closure of the credit
and capital markets for both debt and equity. CRE (commercial
real estate) and the debt which fueled its growth are in a massive
meltdown.”
Then he adds: “And just when we thought that all of the un-
predictables had passed—a tribe of African pirates in speed boats