Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by Schecky Schechner, Managing Director and Co-Head of US Real Estate Banking at Barclays Capital, for a wide-ranging and technically insightful conversation in this latest episode of Onward. As Ben points out, Schecky is credited as one of the co-inventors of Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) in the wake of the S&L crisis in the late ‘80s, a securitization innovation that has since become a trillion-dollar system, earning Schecky his reputation as a living legend in the real estate world. Ben and Schecky’s conversation opens with a broad discussion on the current state of the market before moving into a recap of our “Great Deleveraging” thesis. They then go on to discuss a wealth of additional topics and key financial ideas, including how securitization is a democratizing force in financial markets; why the late 1980’s were “the Big Bang” for real estate finance; why the idioms “A rolling loan gathers no loss,” and “Extend and pretend,” might have a major impact on the American economy over the next twelve months; and much more.

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at [email protected].

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise: With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  

Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc.

Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.