During the past 30 years, the financial markets experienced a trend toward deregulation. Some of that deregulation led to a more efficient investment market, but other changes turned Wall Street into the Wild West. Today, as the government acts to quell the troubled system, investors get the clear sense that more regulation and tighter enforcement is on the way.

One of the most asked questions in our industry today is: How much troubled commercial real estate debt is out there? This question, however, only addresses part of the overall leverage issue that is facing not just commercial real estate investors but households, businesses and governments around the world.

To shed some light and perspective on the current commercial real estate industry state of affairs, Institutional Real Estate, Inc. editorial director Larry Gray spoke with prominent and long-time industry executive Joe Azrack, former president and CEO at Citi Property Investors, one-time head of AEW Capital Management and current managing partner of real estate for Apollo Global Management.