How empty office space became the new bogeyman on Wall Street
CNN
Remote work can be amazing for employees. Less time in stuffy offices and commuting on crowded highways means more time and energy for everything else in life.
Remote work can be amazing for employees. Less time in stuffy offices and commuting on crowded highways means more time and energy for everything else in life. But remote work is not so great for landlords — or their lenders. Once-bustling office buildings are empty. Inevitably, some landlords will go bust. And banks that lent to developers will get burned. None of this is breaking news. The writing has been on the wall in the $20 trillion commercial real estate market for years — ever since Zoom calls and working in sweatpants became a way of life for many during the Covid-19 pandemic. And yet Wall Street is suddenly freaking out about bad real estate loans and empty office buildings.

An initial reading of third-quarter gross domestic product showed the US economy expanded at an inflation-adjusted annualized rate of 4.3%, a far faster pace than the 3.8% recorded in the second quarter, according to Commerce Department data released Tuesday. That’s the fastest growth rate in two years.

Paramount has upped the ante in its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, announcing Monday that Larry Ellison will personally guarantee the tens of billions of dollars he is putting up to bankroll the transaction. The Ellisons will also let shareholders peer into the finances of their family trust.











