February 4, 2012

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Mortgage Applications Plunge, Wal-Mart Indicators, Apple and Great Depressions

October 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment
(Source: Briefing.com)

Mortgage Applications Dump 16.6% MBA reports a 16.6 percent plunge in mortgage applications. Refinance and purchase mortgage applications drop precipitously--expecting loan originations to drop below $1.9 trillion, nearly half of 2003 mortgage boom high. Expect this to hit online mortgage lead generation players like Bankrate.com, as it did Yahoo. Wal-Mart Economic Indicators Wal-Mart Index signals consumer weakness. Paul Kedrosky is fabulous at zeroing in on the right signals to tell you … [Read more...]

Moral Hazards, Too Small to Fail, Mark-to-Market, Bernanke and Obama, P2P Lending

October 21, 2008 By Leave a Comment
p2p lending

When Lenders and Investors Objectives Aren't Aligned The Big Picture does a nice summary of how disconnects between lender and investor alignments can create moral hazard on the scale of mortgage implosion and financial market meltdown. Overstructuring risk mitigation combined with dangerously low interest rates makes credit feel like cash, debt like wealth. And, here we are... Seth Godin Reminds Us There is "Too Small to Fail" A great little post about the value of being small. It doesn't imply … [Read more...]

EU Reshaping Capitalism, without US? Rising Deficit, Rating Agencies, GM Chrysler Merger

October 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment
debt clock

Markets Overnight Mixed. Mortgage rate likely to continue upward trend on Fannie, Freddie debt sell-offs. Markets ready for Lehman $360 billion swap unwind. EU Strong-Arming US to Reshape Capitalism? President Bush, under concerns of ceding leadership of global financial leadership to the EU, agreed to hosting a global summit to have substantive talks on reshaping global financial systems. Reports indicate that French President Sarkozy was applying significant pressure to President Bush to host … [Read more...]

Weekend Notes

October 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment
baseball economy

Weekend Read File: Will economic collapse hurt contracts for baseball players? Time to Clean Up After the Party An Example of Economics at Work Bernanke is Fighting the Last War Churchill's Dictum and Henry Paulson PIMCO's Gross sees market confidence restored 'in weeks' on bank rescue (this guy is incredible-sarcasm in voice) Have we learned the right lessons from the Great Depression? Mark Cuban helping to watchdog our tax dollars Sequoia tells portfolio companies to hunker down … [Read more...]

Mortgage Fraud, Banks Borrow From Fed, Housing Starts, Buffett Buys American

October 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment
warren buffett

Mortgage Fraud US attorney is on the hunt for mortgage scoundrels. He is promising "dramatic results," but I am skeptical about making mortgage application fraud stick to these former high-flying executives. Mortgage applications were worked and approved at very low levels within these organizations. Loan origination strategies and behaviors were managed with commission plans and production quotas--making proving high-level, endemic fraud very hard to prove. Banks Borrow Record Fed Funds Banks … [Read more...]

Ben Bernanke Talks to New York Economic Club

October 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment
ben bernanke speech analysis

It is mostly about FINANCIAL MARKETS: Bernanke Themes: Talk about unique nature of the financial market crisis Recent history recapped, as only an economic historian could More about TARP Federal Reserve's role in all this, relative to Treasury and FDIC Stabilization confidence talk Oops, a little talk about inflation again... Global coordination is still important Full Text of Bernanke's address to New York Economic Club. (word analysis: wordle.net) … [Read more...]

Obama, All Markets Surge, Hedge Funds Retract, Recession

October 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment
finviz_thumb

Barack Obama on the Economy President hopeful Senator Barack Obama sought to capture some of the stock market rally euphoria and lock-up control of the economic issue. Presenting a much broader economic vision, Obama promised an additional $60 billion to help state and local governments, increase jobs, let individuals dip into their retirement savings tax-free, and issue a moratorium on foreclosures. Heading in to the third and final debate, it promises to be all about the "Economy, … [Read more...]

Update on Troubled Asset Relief Program Implementation

October 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment
kashkari update on tarp

Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari gave his 10 day update on implementing Congress' $700 billion Treasury-led bailout. This is the visual synopsis of his remarks: (tag cloud: wordle.net, technique hat tip: Paul Kedrosky, full text: WSJ) Kashkari higlighted a strategy "with one simple goal--to restore capital flows to the consumers and businesses that form the core of our economy." Some of the highlights of implementation ("tools") include: MBS purchase … [Read more...]

Saturday Reading: G7, GM and Chrysler, Paulson-Trust Me

October 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

(Bloomberg) G-7 agrees to take "all necessary steps" and will back all "systemically important financial institutions." However, they don't trust each other enough to guarantee interbank lending: The G-7 officials shied away from endorsing a U.K. proposal to guarantee lending between banks either by turning central banks into clearing houses for the loans or having governments back them. Paulson confirms his domestic priorities: Paulson signaled his top priority, having secured $700 billion … [Read more...]

Morning Worldwide Central Bank Rate Cuts Trump News

October 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment
central bank chess game

The rush of morning economic news is all about the extraordinary, coordinated rate cut by most of the world central banks. This coordinated 0.5 percent rate cut is a growing indication of a global economy that is comprised of increasingly coupled independent national economies. The world markets over the last several days have been an eerie forecasting tool for each new market opening. Here is some of the initial coverage as markets seem to react positively: Federal Reserve explains in … [Read more...]