The Institutional Risk Analyst

We as people get used to permanence, so it's hard as people to deal with and assimilate sudden change. We like to have stability, so when you suddenly realize that you gotta go live somewhere else, that's a big deal. That's something Americans have a great deal of trouble with when we start talking to them about gold. It threatens all of their assumptions. So they get very uncomfortable.

Is Michael Nierenberg, CEO of Rithm Capital (RITM), really paying a double digit cap rate for an "Irreplaceable Portfolio of Class A" properties in San Francisco and New York? What does this say about the true market value of all New York commercial properties?

The public mania around stable coins is the latest evidence that humans are incapable of making rational decisions when they are part of a crowd. Long-term, we should view stable coins as marketing tools for large advertisers to acquire and retain customers.

The intriguing thing about private coin empires is that they are obviously not a positive for existing payment systems, yet neither are they dependent upon crypto. Larger sponsors may be able to create exclusive coin ecosystems without actually touching crypto assets at all. Fiat to AMZN coin, “ZON,” is really all that the sponsor needs.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell now reports up to National Economic Council head Kevin Hassett.

In this issue of The Institutional Risk Analyst, we release the latest edition of The IRA Bank Book for Q4 2023