The past couple of weeks has surely been one of utter uncertainty, black swans appearing simultaneously in various parts of the world, and an administration which seems to still not believe nor understand the full nature nor magnitude of the major threats which exist in Europe and the Mid East. Numerous experts have publicly stated that the terror threat to the US is now greater than it has ever been. The Polish prime minister stated that the world may be on the verge of war in Europe, and Israel has waged war to destroy a terror group which most American allies in the region know to be highly dangerous and in need of annihilation. It seem sonly the US administration and Merkel fail to get it. Putin operates from the standard dictator play book and is relatively impervious to sanctions. If anyone complains too loud he will simply kill them or if they are lucky, just throw them in jail. Sanctions have never won the battle in any country. Where they eventually had some impact like in South Africa it took many years. In the end it solved nothing and the replacement government was far worse than the white government as to corruption and delivering poverty. Iran has withstood sanctions for years and finally it was Obama who blinked, not Iran. Sanctions will do nothing to dissuade Putin. He is a master at the geopolitical power game, and he well understands how to play Obama and Merkel for fools.

While all of this goes on, a massive change is taking place in China. The new premier has determined, correctly, that if the massive corruption at all levels is not stopped, there will in time be another revolution to overthrow the communists. As Chinese get more educated and more are educated in the US and the UK, they come back demanding a different way. The internet lets them communicate widely. China has to change or the people will rise up and change it. The result is to make examples of the most senior and powerful crooks, The result is a massive shut down of the extravagance of five star hotels, expensive watches, trips with the mistress, and opulent homes and cars. So where does all the hidden cash go now? A large amount to the US and for real estate. I am directly involved in potentially bringing one pool of funds from wealthy Chinese for investment in the US for real estate, and the numbers are huge. Hundreds of millions of private funds. And I am just one small bit. It is all very quiet and unseen, and totally outside the normal Wall St and institutional channels.

So what does all of this mean to US real estate. As I have stated before, there is a massive flow of flight money to the US from China, Russia, the Mideast, and Europe. It is not to the point that for top US developers, just saying you have a big check is unimpressive. It has to be real, it has to have representatives here and in those countries who have the discretion and trust to move quickly, and IR cannot be the criteria. Programs like EB-5, which will soon be shown to be scams on typical Chinese investors, are just a drop in the ocean of capital. They are slow, small numbers and costly to arrange. The funds I see are huge and are single individuals or groups of very wealthy individuals pooled under one advisor in China who has the trust of the investors, and people here and complete credibility here.