Former Political Leaders Decry Gridlock

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.