As you read this quarterly mortgage market update, you may still be reeling from the figures on your first quarter 2009 investment statements. Markets have been bruising since the credit crisis began in August 2007, with stocks declining approximately 40% since last Fall alone. During this time, economic and financial market updates have come to
March 2009
The S&P Case Shiller January 2009 report of existing home sales showed record year-over-year -19.0% price declines averaged across 20 major cities (see table below). Notable declines were Las Vegas -32.5%, Phoenix -35.0%, and San Francisco -32.4%. From December to January as well as January 2008-2009, prices in all 20 cities in the composite were
The former Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, is writing a book about his role in the Bush administration during the economic crisis. Oddly, the book starts on Chapter 11. End of Month Lender Strain It is the last day of the month. Not only are Ops departments everywhere scrambling to fund loans while they keep an
GM’s Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner has reportedly been forced out as GM has piled up billions of dollars in losses and asked for government loans to stay alive. Wagoner was with GM for 32 years, and has been replaced by Fritz Henderson, the company’s vice chairman and chief operating officer. (Let’s hope his 401(k)
Ahead of this week’s G20 meeting, satirists handed out thousands of copies of the Financial Times. Pretty funny, here’s the accompanying site.
Dear Dylan: I read about your fiery departure from CNBC, and that’s the only way I would have heard about it because I stopped watching CNBC around January 2008. CNBC had been a critical part of my all-day regimen for 13 years, but I stopped watching because CNBC turned into your typical shouting-match cable news
Last week, we discussed the Treasury’s Public Private Investment Program which is a way for banks to unload illiquid assets. As we said at the time, it’s a smart program. But the Economist this week points out that it’s only a half plan, and unless banks are forced to sell assets, it’s not likely to
Is Ken Lewis suggesting a rebirth of Glass Steagall? If so, the Grave of Phil Gramm’s must be turning over. And also the special interests of Gramm’s decades-long crusade to deregulate banking must have gotten to him, as the story that started this rumor has been updated. Lewis said something of the sort after a
One-Month T-Bill Yields Negative Again I called up the US Treasury yesterday to ask them how much they’d pay me to loan them money (e.g., buy a Treasury security) for a month. They replied, “Not only will we not pay you any interest, but you’ll pay us interest to loan us your money!” A novel
RATE UPDATE Rates on conforming loans up to $417k and super-conforming loans up to $625k are down about .25% since the big Fed announcement last Wednesday—they were down further but have since retraced. Increases of super-conforming loan limits to $729k have still not been announced by Fannie and Freddie—it’s expected very soon. Rates on Jumbos
This week was the twelfth week of a mortgage bond purchase program by the Federal Reserve—here’s week 11. Beginning on March 18 and ending on March 25, the Fed bought $33.1b net of mortgage bonds—below is a table breaking down the amounts for each coupon and maturity across the three agencies that issue mortgages: Fannie
Final 4Q2008 GDP came in today at -6.3%. This is the slowest quarterly pace of economic growth since 1982, back when average unemployment was 9.7% (vs. 8.1% as of February) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller was released—and went on to become the biggest selling album in history. As of December 23, 2008, -0.5% GDP was the
Below are two clips from this week’s South Park on how the credit system works and how decisions are being made in Washington. The end of each clip has a link to the whole episode.
You have to be suspect when financial decision makers start talking about reinventing the game of finance like Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner did today. The first time in recent history was in 1994 when Salomon Brothers bond genius John Meriwether founded hedge fund Long Term Capital Management with a group of ‘financial engineers’ who were
Anytime one combines the words “politician”, “mortgage fraud”, and “dominatrix” in a news story, it makes for interesting press. Are Mortgage Brokers Going Extinct? Brokers are wondering if they will become extinct. Frankly, I doubt it. Remember that mortgage investors are “for profit” institutions. If a particular investor, such as Bank of America or Wells
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