Manhattan Sushi & Banking
Yesterday, I had lunch with author, investor, and bank analyst Chris Whalen. Chris took one of the alternate subscription paths providing a delicious sushi lunch in mid-town Manhattan. That’s right, you too dear reader can take me to a nice lunch/dinner and gain a basic membership or you can:
I’ve known Chris since 2009. We were introduced by Secrets of the Temple author Bill Greider when I asked him for some people who know about banking. Bill had known Chris’ dad, Richard, who had been among other things, a speechwriter for Richard Nixon. Chris has worked for the Fed and some of the big banks, closely follows banking, especially housing, its regulation and lack there of, for decades. He has a fondness for gold I don’t share, but in this era of crypto, gold almost has a certain nostalgic heft don’t it? We share a complete disdain for crypto, but then any of the boys looking at our above pix would dismiss that as the carping of old men.
I mentioned the vice-chair of the Fed’s comment the other day that we were heading toward a “seismic-shift” in the value of money. I was astounded it was barely reported. He shrugged. I said, “It’s not Bill Greider’s Fed anymore is it?” He replied, “No, it’s not.”
He gave me a look at commercial office space saying a lot of people are taking big hits when they sell. Occupation rates are as low as 50% in parts of Manhattan and other cities across the country depending where they are. You only get the occasional story on this in the financial press.
PE and Hedge Fund home ownership and rentals were not very great, “Nothing to yell about.” He also noted while home prices have stayed up, the housing market is less than half of what it was ten years ago. He suggested “manufactured housing” as a good solution to affordable housing shortage in places like Manhattan.
Regarding the health of the financial sector, he amusingly noted Jamie Dimon’s new dark tower in mid-town – one tower to rule them all and in the darkness bind them. To build such a monstrosity, JPMorgan did things like help loot the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, “one of the largest financial crimes of the century,” for which they settled yesterday for $330 million. Call it a cost of doing business in the 21st century.
Near the end of lunch, Chris said, “Look, at some point, this whole thing is going to come down hard again.” I replied, “That’s what people keep saying and then here we are.”
Place your bets.
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