Despite a backdrop of a lethargic global economy and continued uncertainty surrounding the euro zone, prime retail rents were resilient over the year to June 2012, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest Main Streets Across the World report.

Secondary market transactions are on the rise — and with good reason. These transactions are often consummated at a discount to the net asset value of the underlying assets and provide investors with some special advantages.

As growth among the world’s largest emerging economies continues spawning new investment capital, a pertinent question looms: Which of those revved-up economies appear positioned to start making direct investments in U.S. trophy properties and construction projects, much as the Japan Inc. did during its 1980s heyday? As various experts and research from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) suggest, look mostly to the east and south — as in the Far East and South America.

Let’s fantasize for a moment that e-commerce in the United States will continue to grow 10 percent to 15 percent a year and eventually bulldoze brick-and-mortar retail.

Even though the unemployment rate is trickling down ever so slowly, companies are now creating more jobs for which they cannot find qualified candidates. The paradox: Too many Americans cannot find jobs, yet too many companies cannot fill open positions. It is a real modern-day dilemma, one for which the past offers no precedent.