One of the enduring mysteries of human behavior is our perpetual discomfort with the present. Why can’t today be more like yesterday? Yet when tomorrow brings the hoped-for change, we are invariably chagrined. Oscar Wilde captured this tendency when he wrote, “When the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers.”
Lenders like to secretly root for downturns. Nothing serious, just enough to skim foam off the market latte. It also creates an optimal environment for risk officers to once again rule investment committees. Risk-off becomes an all-purpose directive to turn down deals with aggressive structures or story borrowers...
