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February 25, 2025 6 mins
The Wall Street Journal’s crying foul over DOGE slashing federal leases—claims it’ll tank the office market, especially in DC with its 23% vacancy rate. Trump and Musk’s efficiency push targets 100 leases and two-thirds of empty federal buildings—taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for unused space. WSJ’s acting like a left-wing rag, not a free-market champ, propping up developers over reality. Let DC’s overvalued real estate crash and find its true worth. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
You got some duh empty heads over at the Wall
Street Journal, kids, And yeah, we've been reporting on this
for some time. But maybe maybe it's something a little
bit more nefarious. Maybe they're not empty heads, maybe they
know exactly what they're doing. We're watching a complete shutdown, breakdown,

(00:37):
meltdown in the mainstream media, especially the liberal outlets out there.
MSNBC having an age or purge. Let's put that aside.
The liberal the narrative building that's not going to go away.
It's going to go away. So what I see happening

(01:00):
right now they are, well, they're usurping certain publications. And
this has been happening at the Wall Street Journal. Little
by little they can go and they can say Wall
Street Journal, that's you can't say, that's a liberal publication.
What do you mean you can't I can The Wall
Street Journal, outside of a few of their writers on

(01:23):
their opinion pages, has become a left wing rag They
have a different style to the way that they write
than the New York Times, but without a doubt their
left wing. They've been going after Doge on their front pages.

(01:47):
Like you read about.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Every single day, every bit of good news that comes
out out of the Trump administration, they look to thwart.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Whether it be Apple and what they're hiring or it
doesn't make any difference, they're going after it all. Here's
a case in point. I want to explain to you
how they operate Doge. Move to slash federal leases threatens
office market recovery. The district of Columbia's office market has

(02:21):
been one of the hardest hit in the Country's working
from home. Everybody's working from home. Okay, they got to
meet with their favorite politician. Okay that I didn't need
to go in in a freaking office for They're gonna
meet them at some bar. All right, give me a break.

(02:41):
But anyway, the Trump Administration's move to terminate millions of
square feet of federal leases and sell government buildings threatens
to weaken a fledgling recovery in the US office market
from California to Washington, DC, DMN. Trump He's gonna drive
the real estate values down, So what who cares? Okay,

(03:08):
he's not dropped. He is bringing reality to the real
estate market. Empty all so we as tax ban It's
a Wall Street Journal is saying shit, man, you know
we should the taxpayer should continue to pay all of
these leases and all of these buildings that nobody's in

(03:29):
that are empty. We should continue to maintain them, continue
to keep the lights on, continue to heat the damn buildings,
continue to pay all of the maintenance work in these
buildings so we can help out real estate developers in
these areas. Is that what you're saying again? I thought
the Wall Street Journal was a conservative publication that believed

(03:50):
in the free market. The market will find it's you know,
it's true value when you get everything out of the way.
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has targeted nearly one
hundred leases at government agency offices for termination or consolidation.

(04:11):
Trump is considering selling two thirds of the federally owned
office buildings that are empty or unused. Ah Boy, Washington,
d C is the bulls eye. DC faces the greatest
number of closures, with eleven leases totally one point four
million square feet. That is just the first wave of
cuts in a city where the federal government is the

(04:31):
primary employer. Yeah, a lot of buildings going to go away,
and they're talking about Oh no. The district's office market
has been one of the hardest hit in the country,
with a vacancy rate peaking at nearly twenty three percent
last year. Again, I want you to think about this
for a second, because I guess the either the empty
heads or the nefarious liberals over at the Wall Street Journal.

(04:56):
Why is it? Why? If you know g you would
think that the Washington DC see his vacancy rates at
twenty three percent? How is it that five out of
these seven wealthiest zip codes in the country surround Washington DC.
Something's amiss there, Dutch Thank. I mean, one would think
if you have that many wealthy suburban areas surrounding Washington,

(05:17):
d C. You would think that, man, Washington DC real estate,
commercial real estate should be hustling and bustling, baby. But
it's not. It's not. The federal government typically isn't able
to end proper leases before the maturity dates, so those
is focusing on leases with near expirations or those that

(05:37):
include options to get out of lisas early. That gives
a government the ability to negotiate a more immediate departure.
Oh no, oh, no again, Don Peeples. He's a big
Democrat owner, he's a big developer in Washington, d C.
He's not happy about this. Boy. Oh but again, this

(05:58):
is the Wall Street Journal, you know, basically say not again.
Supposed to be free market paper, right, I guess they
don't want to have a free market. They want they
want we the taxpayers, to prop up real estate in
an area where it I don't care. Let it collapse,
Let it collapse. It doesn't I mean, listen, people again,

(06:25):
everything has an intrinsic value. Sometimes it's above value, sometimes
it's below that value. But eventually it's going to find
its intrinsic value. Let it go, Let the chips fall
where they may. If Washington, DC is such a great
place to do business, man, all of this cheap real
estate there in DC, one would think people would flock

(06:45):
to open up businesses there, right, sure, watchdog on Wall
Street dot com
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