Monday

It was widely expected that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke would continue to trim away at the rates at regularly scheduled meeting, held yesterday. Then the worries started. Victor Sperandeo, a principal of Enhanced Alpha Management in New York City, tells GlobeSt.com that one theory was that the Fed had reacted to unusual volatility in the market last Monday, which turned out to be due to Societe Generale's $7.3-billion losing position on European share prices thanks to the actions of a rogue trader. "The market [was] looking for one half of a percent further cut," he says.

By this point, the commercial real estate industry is ready to embrace any proposed panacea to the current capital market ills, including an aggressive monetary policy and the perception that the Fed is willing to aggressively counteract against recessionary forces as it can. Still, while the rate cuts will have some positive impact, there is a sense in some quarters that they are not likely to get some lenders to budge.

"Lower interest rates obviously have an impact on commercial real estate markets and the potential tenants that we deal with from a standpoint of financial costs," Richard Bowers, principal with Richard Bowers & Co, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate firm, tells GlobeSt.com. "Not withstanding, there is some reluctance on the part of some lenders to lend money at this time and the spreads have also increased, which may not make financing costs materially better than they were before."