STREET DOGS

From ai-cio.com:

Billionaire investor Sam Zell thinks the capital markets are being too Pollyannaish and expects a U-shaped recovery for the economy, rather than a quick, sharp rebound.

Zell, the founder and chair of private investment firm Equity Group Investments, said he thinks the capital markets are too willing to assume good news and are “generally too optimistic”.

However, he thinks we’ll see some significant recovery between now and the end of the year. “A lot of people are relatively surprised about how well we are doing today considering what we’ve been through,” said Zell.

He also said a lot of the damage currently hurting the economy was not caused by the pandemic, but was merely accelerated by it. For example, “Over the last four or five years there’s been an all-time record for restaurant openings. There wasn’t enough support for that and the pandemic has brought that to the forefront.”

Zell said the commercial real estate industry was in a similar situation. But he doesn’t foresee a major shift in people working remotely and expects most people will eventually return to their offices. “If you want to run a business and have it be successful, you have to create contact between people.”

However, Zell doesn’t share the same optimism for the hospitality industry. He believes it will “be a tough environment” as business travellers will be reticent to go on the road when they can use Zoom. “We had an over-supply in hotels before the pandemic and a significant number are not going to reopen.”

The only thing Zell is buying at the moment is gold, which he said is in response to the debasing of currency on a worldwide basis. “So far, we haven’t had any inflation … but there is little doubt that this is not going to be like that forever.”