Month: March, 2009

Auctioning your headaches: Part 2, the how

31 March, 2009 (08:38) | Capital markets, PPIP, Subprime, Treasury, US News | No comments

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]
 
Yesterday’s post laid out, using as our texts a Wall Street Journal article (plain text) and my Recap essay State of the Market 16: Auctioning Your Headaches (quoted in this font), why the capital markets were clamoring for an auction-sale approach to complex pre-restructuring assets that has now been dubbed the [...]

Auctioning your headaches: Part 1, the why

30 March, 2009 (10:55) | Capital markets, Essential posts, PPIP, Subprime, Treasury, US News | No comments

Last week, to the delight of Wall Street and as reported in the Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Geithner finally unveiled the long-awaited financial-recapitalization plan for up to $1,000,000,000,000 worth of complex non-performing securities, in what the administration inelegantly named the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP).  
 

“A PPIP structure will bring fast fast fast relief!”
 
WASHINGTON — [...]

The challenge and opportunity of slums: Part 2, the opportunities

27 March, 2009 (09:35) | Cities, Demographics, Dharavi, India, Kenya, Kibera, Policy, Slums | 1 comment

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]
 
Yesterday’s post covered half of my little talk – the challenges part – on the Infrastructure and Real Estate panel at Harvard Business School’s 2009 India Conference, one of the largest student-run events in the country, attracting several hundred people. 
 

“So far out there I can’t be contained behind a dais!”
 
My [...]

The challenge and opportunity of slums: Part 1, the challenges

26 March, 2009 (09:56) | Cities, Demographics, Dharavi, India, Kenya, Kibera, Policy, Slums | No comments

In mid-March, I had the scintillating experience of participating on a panel in Infrastructure and Real Estate at Harvard Business School’s 2009 India Conference, one of the largest student-run events in the country, attracting several hundred people. 
 

“Who knew slums could be funny?”
 
My fellow panelists were:
 
Abha Joshi-Ghani, Urban Sector Manager for the Finance, Economics, and [...]

Housing authorities’ comparative advantages

25 March, 2009 (10:05) | Ecosystems, Innovations, Legislation and policy, Predictions, Public housing, Theory, US News | 1 comment

On Saturday, March 14, I participated in back-to-back panels at the NAHRO (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials) spring legislative conference, and the topic rolled around to the reinvention of public housing – particularly in light of the tumult engulfing the American affordable housing ecosystem.
 

 
[Readers will recall that I've previously published three speculative/ [...]