The shorts have published their “short General Growth” piece. Let’s look:
General Growth Properties

Looks bad for us GGP (GGWPQ.PK) shareholders, no? The first part of the presentation take us into the death of the US mall. For the record, whenever I read about the “death” of anything, I instantly become skeptical. Hovde shows us how retail and mall metrics have fallen over the past year. Of that there is no dispute. What Hovde does not focus on is that this quarter's trends have been increasing GDPand an improving unemployment situation, consumer confidence, housing, credit and income trends. All these are bullish for the sector. Rather, they take a year long look at metrics and focus on the annual decline. Are they at last year's levels? No. Are they improving significantly over the past few months? Yes.