Thank you to our friends at CPN for arranging this opportunity. Hopefully, this will give us in the industry a new communication vehicle that not only provides a platform for opinions but perhaps some worthwhile interaction. With the start of 2009, we are leaving behind perhaps the worst year in commercial real estate finance since the Great Depression. Maybe – if measured in the amount of the fall from what we had to where we are now – the worst ever. It was a year of fundamental correction so extreme that it effectively closed down the entire commercial mortgage backed…

–You can run, but regrettably you cannot seem to hide from the “corporate crazies.” Over the years, I’ve simply come to a conclusion that many otherwise savvy business people have yet to grasp; you can’t argue with crazy. We’ve all heard the saying “pick your battles,” and in my experience one of the most futile battles that can be waged is attempting to change the mind of someone who already lives in an altered state. So, as we move forward into 2009 I’ll share some thoughts on how to make sure the lunatics don’t gain control of the asylum in…