Though cannabis’ status as a Schedule 1 controlled substance has hampered the industry’s ability to fully integrate into the digitally dominated payment world, with credit card issuers refusing to process cannabis transactions, cannabis businesses have historically been able to enjoy similar benefits of efficiency, convenience, and security with debit cards. However, MasterCard’s recent ban on...
“The market is resilient” was the mantra throughout the pandemic. Now that the Federal Reserve is at an inflection point on interest rate hikes and the pause on student loan payments is set to end after three years of relief, “the market is vulnerable” may be a more appropriate refrain. In fact, the cracks have started to show, particularly in subprime auto ABS.
An inescapable result of high interest rates and post-pandemic trends is downward pressure on commercial real estate valuations, especially in the office sector. Given commercial mortgage-backed securities and other deal structures in which control of the loan rests with the lowest priority interest that is in the money, reduced valuations will likely become the flashpoint for CRE litigation.
Commercial real estate (CRE) sectors have not escaped the perma-crisis era in which we live, and the worst appears yet to come. First, hospitality and retail suffered setbacks with pandemic lockdowns. Then, the persistence of work-from-home and employee resistance to returning to the office drastically changed the flow of workers to the office and urban centers. Now, before those issues are...
2023 may create the harshest conditions yet for the cannabis industry. The economy was already expected to be a challenge to profitability and now turmoil in the banking sector may further distract Congress from passing meaningful marijuana banking legislation, continuing to limit access to credit. Yet, as the market continues its inevitable march toward federal legalization, it is possible to...
Around the time Reuters published our article regarding bankruptcy eligibility, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California (LA Division) issued a decision in In re The Hacienda Company, LLC, that thoughtfully articulates the balancing of governmental policies, bankruptcy purposes and creditors’ rights a bankruptcy court should engage in when dealing with cannabis and...
Going forward, it looks like crypto companies that make it in New York will be able to make it anywhere. All over, at the state and federal level and internationally, turmoil in the crypto industry is leading to increased scrutiny. In New York, home of the comprehensive (some would say onerous) BitLicense, cryptocurrency mining has been partially banned and the New York State Department of...
