Yesterday I attended a fascinating real estate investors’ conference for hedge funds, lenders and owners. : Yesterday I attended a fascinating real estate investors’ conference for hedge funds, lenders and owners. The talk of the conference was the almost complete inability of landlords (other than owners of tier 1 properties), to get any financing at all, except at exorbitant rates around 15% which is more than double the current financing that these buildings have in place. This underscores what may be the greatest threat to the otherwise resilient American economy.