Good News Friday - August 21, 2009

It’s Over, Over There

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development announced this week that gross domestic product in the OECD area (30 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas) stabilized in the second quarter (click here). Also, Olivier Blanchard, director of research at the International Monetary Fund, announced that the global recovery has started (click here).

If it’s over, over there, then it’s almost over, over here. The Conference Board reported this week that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose again in July. The six-month growth rate in the index is at its highest level since the middle of 2004 (click here). The Conference Board’s Index of Coincident Economic Indicators suggests that the recession is bottoming out in the U.S. and that economic activity will likely begin to recover soon.

Lastly, commercial real estate lags the broader economy, which makes it tough to find much good news in the sector at the present time. But Jim Cramer, the energetic host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” gave a surprisingly upbeat outlook on the sector during an interview on Wednesday with Gerard Sweeney, the CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust. Cramer’s blog doesn’t fully capture the upbeat tone of the interview, but it conveys the main points of his argument.

Have a great weekend.

Robert Bach
SVP, Chief Economist
Grubb & Ellis
312.698.6754