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By Knight Kiplinger

The Kiplinger Washington Editors

July 2, 2009

By year-end or so, Congress will give the nod to a major rewriting of the nation's financial regulatory system. This week’s Kiplinger Letter explores whether the package will do more harm than good and what lawmakers are likely to include.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Economy, Business Costs, Taxes, Supreme Court, Energy, Workplace Regulations, Climate Change, Health Care Legislation and Foreign Policy

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I just attended a franchise seminar. The speaker represents a few hundred franchises that (he says) are hand picked. He has the prospect (aka victim?) answer some questions about themselves then he makes recomendations - based on your personality, capital situation, etc.. If you pick a franchise, then he does some due dilligence for you. If you both decide it's a good idea, he helps you get started. He says he offers this service free of charge, which means he gets a commission if he's able to sell you a franchise. Has anyone done this? Successfully? Unsuccessfully?

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Plan on Paying More for Office Space

Tom DeLay and company will cheer the decision backing the remapping of Texas congressional districts, but Democrats may have the last laugh.

By Peter Goldstein, Senior Economics Editor, The Kiplinger Letter

June 28, 2006

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Strong Growth in Apartment Rents (6/23/06)

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The pace of hikes in office rental rates will cool only slightly in coming months as slower employment growth tempers demand for work space. Nationwide, we expect to see the average rent go up about 5% over the next 12 months, compared with a 6% gain since last June.

But in cities boasting consistently strong employment growth, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., landlords will be luckier, demanding and getting rent increases in the upper single digits. At the low end of the spectrum, cutbacks by automakers and their suppliers will boost the supply of empty offices in Detroit and other Upper Midwest cities. Already, Detroit's vacancy rate of slightly above 20% is the highest in North America.

Investment in new and existing office space is on track to grow by about $10 billion this year to $111 billion before decelerating next year. High prices for building materials such as steel and cement, as well as tight supplies of skilled labor for carpentry and other tasks, will lead to cancellations and scaled-down redesigns of many office projects. But interest in existing office buildings is likely to remain fairly brisk as pension funds, wealthy individuals and foreign investors continue to view the U.S. commercial property sector as a solid long-term buy.

The pullback in new building will probably keep the slowdown in rental increases from snowballing in the years ahead, despite easing economic growth. Nationally, existing office space is renting out—that is, coming off the market—faster than new supplies are coming on the market. Robust absorption rates in Chicago, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta suggest that rent gains in these areas will ease more slowly than elsewhere.

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