Welcome to 2025 and we hope you and your community are off to a great start. Change is good – it keeps us sharp and on our toes and new ideas can often lead to new successes at home and the office and we hope that’s true for you! My regular readers, for whom I am […]
Tag: INTEREST
It’s A New Day
It’s -6°F as I write this on January 20th in Denver with about 2” of new snow on my driveway. Those of us who have lived in Denver all our lives call this “Stock Show Weather” – that frigid time during our National Western Stock Show and yes, it’s cold! And yes, it’s a new year and a […]
What to do when you really need your project approved!
Getting your next project approved is a bit like dating: You need to present yourself positively and professionally at the first night out ‘cuz you do not get a second chance to make a first impression. Candidly, this rule of thumb applies to the full range of project applications we see from the $30 Million transaction we’re […]
Forecasting the Economy v. Ski Season
I live in Colorado and ski season accounts for $4.8 billion of our state’s annual economy. It supports more than 46,000 year-round jobs and generates $1.9 billion in labor income so it’s darned important to us – including my aging knees that have been skiing since I was a kid. So, when I get it in […]
Evaluating Hard Equity Loans: The Importance of Hurdle Rates in Equipment Financing
I have a good friend in Denver that makes “hard equity” loans on commercial real estate – something like 50% loan to value and at fairly high rates. It’s a tool that investors and developers can use when they’re in a hurry or have a deal outside the scope of a bank. And he always looks the […]
The Election Year Blues
George Soros once said “Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” and there are few things in life more uncertain than an election. George went to the London School of Economics, a nice pedigree and it’s widely known the wealthiest […]
The Dog Days of Summer
The internet is full of myth and mystery – fact and fiction so you need to take your own grain of salt to this origin to “The Dog Days of Summer”: Ancient Greeks noticed that Sirus—which they dubbed the “dog star” as it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major—appears to rise alongside the […]
The World’s Reserve Currency… is not reserved!
Being the World’s Reserve Currency – the US Dollar – has an outsized influence on global affairs. It’s what all the “other” countries hold in their central banks to make sure they can pay their global bills. If you’re buying wheat from Kansas, it’s obvious you’re paying in dollars…what’s not so obvious is that bottle of French […]
What is stagflation and why should you care?
John Maynard Keynes gave us the definition of inflation for the modern era adding a few causes and cures. One cure is printing enough money to create growth and jobs to promote economic growth. Well, we have printed money! In 2020 alone we poured some $5 Trillion into the economy or enough money to lay $100 bills end to […]
Energy Costs Impacting You
There’s so much to process this week. It can be overwhelming so let’s just look at two statistics and their impact to you: From 1/3/22 to 2/23/22 the benchmark 10-Year T-Bill is up over 22% making your 10 year $1 Million MUNI lease more expensive by more than $21 Thousand over a 10 year term […]