Mish Talk headline: There’s an Amazing Glut of Office Space in Every Major Metro Area
Sub-headline: Occupancy is an engine of local economies. But there’s a huge glut of space available.
MISHJUL 20, 2022
https://mishtalk.com/economics/theres-an-amazing-glut-of-off…
My fave part of this blog post is Mish giving us his short history of his evolution from message boards to being one of the top Economic bloggers of today.
Mish started what is known as today’s METAR board on Motley Fool. He was the first person I followed on Fool who predicted the Housing Bubble and then Housing Crash/Credit Crisis with amazing accuracy despite all the trolls calling him names for being so pessimistic. When was Mish was proven right, was about the time his blog took off and he disappeared from Fool.
Here’s Mish from a “Mish Talk” blog from just three days ago and I’m going to quote liberally here as though had written this for the old board named Misheldo on Motley Fool before it became METAR. (Same board, different name.) Noticeably absent in his retelling of his history, there is no mention of his time on Motley Fool’s Misheldo Board. I wonder why that is? He was a very large presence here at one time and I loved his verbal battles with certain Realtors who drank the Kool-Aid and called him all kinds of names. Again, here’s Mish:
"When I was in corporate America, close to 20 years at Harris Bank in downtown Chicago. I liked the comradery and social interaction at the office.
When I got married, my wife insisted on moving away from the crime to the suburbs. She was mugged (purse snatch) where we had an apartment.
That led to a one hour and twenty minute commute on the train plus another 20 minutes to get to the train. I despised that commute.
I left Harris as a consultant in 2000 but that had me on the road in New York City, then Elgin (only a 20 minute drive), then Minneapolis.
I did not mind the plane travel actually. Every other weekend I would fly home and the other weeks my wife would fly in. We got to see the east coast. Minneapolis was an alternate week drive,
After 911, consulting jobs dried up and I was out of work for nearly three years. I know full well the depression of being out of a job.
In 2003, I was unemployed, hanging around on stock message boards on Silicon Investor. Calculated Risk (Bill McBride) was one of the participants on my forum.
He started his blog and created the template for my blog. We went on to become two of the top three economic bloggers in the county in terms of traffic. I survived on ad revenue.
Occasionally, I would have the most traffic in month but usually it was Barry Ritholtz or Calculated Risk.
I owe a lot to Calculated Risk, also Barry Ritholtz. The latter promoted my blog frequently in the early going.
Now I could not fathom working for anyone but myself, out of my house or on the road wherever I am doing photography.
By the way, I believe I have written a blog post every day, 365 or 366 days a a year without missing a single day since March 2003. On Christmas and New Years it was typically just Merry Christmas or Happy New Year, but it was something every day."
I have different politics than Mish, but I do respect his sharp analysis of anything Fed related, and housing, Lawdy, Child, he’s got housing down like Bill McBride at Calculated Risk - whom Mish mentions in thanks below (along with Barry Ritholtz.)
Anyway, this blog is a great look at office space glut around the USA. But I wanted to make sure other old time fools who might be reading catch up with how well things are going for Mish. I wish him all the best.