That crafty Roman god Janus seems to be playing with our economy. He’s the one with two heads facing opposite directions. He can see past and future, and is the god of beginnings and endings and of transitions. Some traditions hold he is also a contradictory deity who takes delight in confusing the issue.
Certainly, the economy has become a confusing issue. We’re in a recession; things are bad. We’re not in a recession; things are good. OK, color me perplexed!
From the viewpoint of an average-income earner, one who is not privy to the intricacies of high finance and big-dollar investments, things seem to be getting a bit tight budgetwise. From the point of view of the storage industry, Janus is beaming his unbearded bright face on some, scowling his bearded face on others.
For those of you who have seen a drop in occupancy levels, I found this encouraging item in The Flathead Beacon, published out of Kalispell, Mont. Seems self-storage is essentially a recession-proof real estate. As times get tougher, more people will need a place to keep their goods if they need to downsize their dwellings.
Then this really hot item crossed my desk. This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission declared Strategic Storage Trust Inc. a "blind pool" public, non-traded self storage REIT. This new entity has registered a $1 billion public offering to be sold on a best efforts basis over the next two years.
But Janus’s stern visage seems to frown on other participants in our industry. Business Wire reported on May 6 that Sovran Self Storage liquidity concerns have led to negative watch, according to the latest credit analysis update by Fitch Ratings. Fitch is an international ratings agency providing issuer and bond ratings, and research for banks corporations, sovereigns, structured and municipal finance.
I'm no economist, not by a long shot, even though I come from a family whose background is banking (my father and his brother were officers in major international banks). But there’s no doubt these economic times are taking a rollercoaster ride. In fact, it looks like the economy has picked the world’s largest rollercoaster for its trip.
But I think I will adopt the bright side of Janus's face as my outlook. Things are looking good—for self-storage and for ISS. And that isn’t a myth!