Friends and Colleagues
The economy is a mess and it's getting worse. We are living in a climate of fear and helplessness. What can we as individuals possibly do to help make things better?
This week, in a rare departure from our usual format of economic analysis, this space will be devoted to sharing three tangible actions that each of us can take right now, to help make things better for us, our families, and our industry.
1. Organizing for America
Please watch the following video clip, and then sign up to be part of President Obama's remarkable Organizing for America movement. http://my.barackobama.com/ofa
Our new President is using the power of Web 2.0 to allow his team to speak to and hear from the citizens of America. This is an unprecedented opportunity to have our voices heard directly by our elected leaders.
Please be part of the solution....click the link, watch the video, and sign up.
2. Tax Relief for Commercial Property Owners for Cancellation of Indebtedness
Please build support for this proposal by sending the following e-mail to President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, your Senators and your Congressional Representative. The proposal is endorsed by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and many other business and real estate groups. For a copy of the letter these groups sent to congress or for more information contact Eric Von Berg, Member of the MBA Commercial Board of Governors.
Dear ,
Please support legislation to include as part of the proposed Federal Stimulus Package, a provision that would offer temporary capital gains tax relief for commercial property owners and lenders resulting from cancellation of indebtedness. This provision, which is already available for homeowners, will help further the national de-leveraging process, while avoiding many potential foreclosures on commercial properties. It will help to avoid the systemic problem of massive commercial property borrower and lender failures.
This proposal would facilitate commercial property owners negotiating with their lenders to modify their loan terms or to buy their loans (or related party loans) at a discount, in order to avoid foreclosure. This would help distressed borrowers improve their cash flow, and it would help lenders avoid capital impairment caused by under-performing or non-performing loans on their books. Currently, this type of loan modification is difficult to achieve because it generates a taxable paper profit to the borrower, and they may not have the capital available to pay the resulting capital gains tax. Your support of this proposal will allow many companies to restructure their balance sheets and reposition themselves for positive growth. It will also help to preserve or create jobs, strengthen the balance sheets of financial institutions and facilitate the de-leveraging of the economy.
Thank you for your help with this critical matter.
Sincerely,
Our elected officials do listen to our input. We can each help sway their votes by telling them our position on this important issue. E-mail is an efficient and effective way to contact them.
Barack Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Nancy Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
Dianne Feinstein: http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUS.EmailMe
Barbara Boxer: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm
Your Local Congressperson: Google your congressperson’s name with the word email.
Please be part of the solution - Copy, click, paste, submit.
3. Support Mike Stryer for LA City School Board
We have a rare opportunity to vote for a gifted businessman to help run the LA Unified School District and its $8 Billion budget! If you live in Los Angeles, please join me in supporting my friend Mike Stryer in his current campaign for LA School Board.
After graduating from Stanford and Yale, Mike spent 15 years as an International Finance Executive, developing business skills that will serve him well as a steward of our tax dollars. Mike then decided to give back meaningfully to the community, so he went back to school, got a teaching degree and spent the next 7 years as a public high school teacher at Fairfax High. Now Mike wants to make a bigger difference to our kids and our community so he is running for LA School Board.
He is uniquely qualified to serve us in this role, given his dual backgrounds in business/finance and in teaching for LAUSD. Please support Mike so he can bring accountability, discipline and hands-on experience to LAUSD. You can learn more about Mike on his web site: http://www.mikestryer.com/
Please be part of the solution....view Mike's web site, vote for him in the upcoming election, and tell your friends.
In our next Economic Update we will return to our regularly scheduled programming of analyzing the economy. If we will each do our part now to effect change, then maybe next time, there will be some good news to report......
