If the problems seen from the likes of NYCB are idiosyncratic rather than systemic, handling this may cost the Fed’s balance sheet about $500 billion.

“Quantitative easing as a tool is not dead. It has become an conventional weapon,” he said.

Investors should remember that it took the wider financial system a decade to recover from the failure to stop the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, he said.

Central to understanding the problems of commercial property, he said, is that part of it is caused by the rise in rates, and another element comes from the shift to working from home since Covid-19.

Data suggests that worries about office occupancy rates might be overblown. The return-to-office trend gained steam in December 2023 when average visitation rates at 350 Manhattan buildings rose to 67 per cent of 2019 rates, according to the Real Estate Board of New York. This is a rise from 65 per cent in November.