CHICAGO- “All of you are in the business of making deals,” William S. Cohen, the former Maine senator, told the 600 real estate professionals gathered on Tuesday in Chicago for DLA Piper's Global Real Estate Summit. In the current political world, however, making deals “apparently means weakness; a lack of principle, [something] to be avoided at all costs.” Cohen was onstage at a lunchtime meeting with his former colleague, former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell and former Ambassador Marc Grossman, and all three agreed the inability to forge agreements in Washington, D.C. threatened the developing recovery of the commercial real estate market.
As reported in GlobeSt.com on Monday, DLA Piper recently conducted a survey of nearly 200 executives. The respondents ranked ending political gridlock as more important to the nation's fiscal health than reducing entitlements or tax reform.
Cohen told attendees that as he crossed D.C.'s Key Bridge on his way to the airport and the summit, he noticed that its concrete was crumbling, illustrating why the country needed the infrastructure improvements that political infighting has blocked. “It has become such an ideologically pure battle; there is no center. I don't know how it changes until one party becomes dominant.” Cohen is a Republican who also served as President Clinton's secretary of defense.
“It's a matter of great concern,” said Mitchell, but it is “easier to diagnose the problem than coming up with a solution.” He largely blames the flood of political money that has inundated the nation's capital. “It has severed the bond of trust between the American people and their elected representatives,” he added, who now feel less responsibility to their constituents than donors.
The lunchtime discussion also veered into foreign affairs and why the real estate industry should pay attention to those issues. Grossman, a former ambassador to Turkey and top State Department official, told attendees that “setting the conditions for your success is a very important part of our foreign policy.”
Many look toward Asia as a valuable market, but Cohen outlined the difficulties American diplomats will confront just to ensure access to China and the surrounding area. “It's pretty awesome to see what the Chinese government and people have accomplished in 35 years,” he said. But “the other countries in the region are getting more apprehensive” as China grows pushier on things like territorial demands. The smaller Asian nations now want the U.S. to pivot away from the Middle East and form strong bilateral relationships with them as a counterweight to their huge neighbor. The Chinese, he added, will then say, “'this pivot is meant to encircle us,'” and diplomats will have to soothe those fears.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
