June 12, 2012
Recently Lee Mashburn and I attended the Urban Land Institute Spring Meeting in Charlotte, NC. The general tone and banter at the meeting was much more upbeat than in past ULI gatherings. Hopefully, this is an indicator that the economy is inching forward and the real estate community has decided to pick up push forward. Erskine Bowles was the keynote speaker on Thursday. Mr. Bowles is the current President for the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In 1993, Bowles was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as director of the Small Business Administration, and later was tapped to serve as deputy White House chief of staff (1994-95) and White House chief of staff (1996-98). As chief of staff, he helped negotiate the first balanced budget in a generation. Mr. Bowles hammered home four main issues that had changed since his time as White House Chief of Staff: Healthcare Costs, Defense Spending, the U.S. Tax Code, and Compound Interest. http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2012/Spr12/RiggsBowles More about ULI: ULI, the Urban Land Institute, is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit research and education organization supported by its members. Founded in 1936, the Institute now has members in 95 countries worldwide, representing the entire spectrum of land use and real estate development disciplines working in private enterprise and public service. As the preeminent, multidisciplinary real estate forum, ULI facilitates an open exchange of ideas, information, and experience among local, national, and international industry leaders and policy makers dedicated to creating better places. Members say ULI provides information they can trust and is a place where leaders come to grow professionally and personally through sharing, mentoring, and problem solving. With pride, ULI members commit to the best in land use policy and practice. http://www.uli.org/
