Commercial real estate owners got some encouraging news during the past few weeks. Several economic reports showed promising signs, and the FDIC made clear how it is looking at commercial real estate loans sitting on the books of banks. For the first time in two years, tangibly good news came out of the Bureau of Economic Analysis on GDP growth. The government agency reported 3.5 percent annualized growth in gross domestic product, which is the highest since the third quarter of 2007. Many economists are declaring the recession over.

Bob Seger in “Against the Wind” and, more recently, Toby Keith sang “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then,“ expressing a desire to erase cumbersome knowledge and move on. Many lenders are now stuck with that feeling as they want to originate new loans, but knowledge of the past 12 months just won’t let them. Flow of Funds data recently released by the Federal Reserve support what most borrowers are experiencing.

On many fronts, the economy appears to be looking up. But commercial real estate can’t seem to shake its perception as “the next shoe to drop.“ If value write-downs by the country’s two largest pension funds are any indication, the other shoe has already dropped. California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) wrote its real estate holdings down by 35.8 percent as of March 31. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) wrote down its holdings by 43 percent for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

John Maynard Keynes is perhaps best known for his economic views that advocate heavy government intervention to ensure that markets run smoothly. He was once quoted as saying: “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.“ While the events of the past year have made Keynesian theories popular again, implementation issues are hounding the current administration and markets.

Like the steady stream of water-toting brooms that could not be controlled by Mickey Mouse in Disney’s “Fantasia,“ bad economic news keeps multiplying. On the jobs, spending, home sales and corporate profit fronts, the news seems particularly bad. As with the apprentice in “Fantasia,“ the public seems overwhelmed and is looking for a sorcerer who can magically get everything back to normal.

During the past 18 months, daily economic headlines have progressively worsened. So much has happened that it is hard to focus on a single Treasury or Fed edict, much less try to understand its ramifications.