Legendary real estate investor Thomas Barrack, Jr., was recently interviewed by FT.com. Here are some pertinent excerpts from that discussion:

Do you feel the opportunities are better here than anywhere else in the world?

Yes, in our business. I think generically you look at China and Brazil and India and say: “If I made Kleenex I would be in those markets,” right? But in our businesses, the volatility is always the engine that drives outside returns. You come back to America, which is still the most transparent society in the world, it has the best information, it has the best legal system, it has the most predictable and aspiring population, and at the moment total confusion. The flux of debt of this $7,000bn of deleveraging that’s still going on will produce tremendous opportunities because we will recover from this.

And on the other side of this, the value creation, once we get to growth, will be phenomenal. So if you can control on a conservative basis assets today at percentages of original value, and a capital structure that will allow you to hold them over time, I think – debt is the new equity and America is the new emerging market. There’s no reason to go outside of the 212 area code.

Long or short?

Macao real estate? Long
Gaming industry in general? Long
Gold? It’s hard to bet against gold. I would say short
Dollar? Short
Renminbi? Long
Florida real estate? Short
Sheila Bair? Very long – one of the best ever
Ben Bernanke? Long
Dubai real estate? Practically short
Arnold Schwarzenegger? He’s a fantastic guy. I’m long Arnold, no matter what happens

Macau casinos

Source:

“View from the Top: Tom Barrack, founder of Colony Capital”
Henny Sender
Financial Times (UK), October 29, 2009

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