Focus on the Economy: A Potpourri of Economic Issues Impacting Real Estate and the Rest of the World (Insider's PERSPECTIVE‪)‬

I. INTRODUCTION THIS TIME OF THE YEAR, INTO THE FAST START of the first quarter of 2005, we are flooded with a potpourri of interacting economic, cultural, political and social issues. Many of these issues are a "parry-and-thrust" position, arguing contrary positions which attempt to support diametrically opposed viewpoints.