Today, the Urban Land Institute Fall meeting gets into full swing in San Francisco. The ULI is expecting a record turnout, as it should.

The IRS recently threw a big, wet towel on a long list of REIT spinouts that are being evaluated, and putting a number of high-profile IPOs in jeopardy.

President Obama will be in town for a couple of days to address the Assembly, but it looks like he will have to find a new place to sleep.

With much hoopla, the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Association cut the ribbon on the expansion of the NYC subway system. It's a small triumph in an otherwise troubled national infrastructure scene.

For the last decade I have trumpeted ushering in of the new business year the day after Labor Day. I revel in observing that the rhythm of business tracks the seasons, and after the lazy days of summer business reignites and gears-up for a marathon to the following July when the business cycle wains into what used to be a slumber. Not so this year!

For those of you who chronically wait to read the current edition of the Executive Watch, you may have an issue with effective time management, or so the Wall Street Journal reported in today's edition. In other words, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow.

By my count, over the course of the past 40 years there have been six major seismic shocks that put the financial markets, and then the economy into a tail spin, with the “great recession” of 2008 being the granddaddy of them all.

The great recession crushed businesses across every sector and every region, and it has been a slow climb out of the rubble with vestiges of the downturn still impacting business and the economy.