Beat And Battered

This week will be interesting for the bond market and mortgage rates. There are five remaining economic reports scheduled for release, but only one of them is considered to be of high importance to the markets. With data being posted all but one day of the week, we may see some noticeable fluctuations from day to day in mortgage pricing.  Generally speaking, despite the lack of a data-packed calendar, I would still maintain constant contact with your mortgage professional.

Interest rates remained volatile last week as worries about inflation continued to influence the mortgage market.   Comments from the Federal Reserve indicated that the current rate of inflation is above desired levels.  When the Fed is concerned about inflation, they tend to raise interest rates.  We recommend locking now before they go up.

Inflation data continues to hammer headlines and our wallets. News this week demonstrated what we have all been feeling; prices are higher at the pump, the grocery store and anywhere else you use your debit card. Interest rates trade off of bond prices and bonds HATE inflation. Coupled with this is concern about a declining economy which could hold rates back a bit, but the overall trend is higher for those seeking a mortgage in coming months.

Volatility being what it is these days, mortgage rates bounce around a lot. Upward pressure for rates one day gives way to downward pressure the next, only to succumb to upward pressure again.

The see saw between concerns about growth and fears about inflation tilted toward the inflation side again this week, after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed Congress in the semi-annual report on monetary policy. While detailing the challenges facing the economy, Bernanke noted that inflation was above desired levels and that upside risks for higher prices have “intensified” lately. A Fed seeing higher inflation usually can be expected to react with an upward move to the Fed Funds and Discount Rates at some point in the not-too-distant future. In fact, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee explicitly noted at its last meeting that “with increased upside risks to inflation and inflation expectations, members believed that the next change in the stance of policy could well be an increase in the funds rate.”

Related Posts

• Chairman Ben Bernanke Testimony
• Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Speaks On Housing Part 2
• Federal Reserve Video News Channel
• What Will The Federal Reserve Do June 25th?
• Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosures

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Yo, I must admit, in grad school I played video games, Madden and this boxing shit. What I remember about the boxing game was that when u would hit folk, it would say stuff like “body blow, body blow, head shot, body blow.” I like-ed that shit.

I am reminded of this because I feel that it is the perfect introduction to our economic concerns as we are all citizens of the united states of America, now true, I was gonna post on something I wrote this morning called “WORK HARD AND DONT COMPLAIN.” But after reading the comments to the previous post by the scholarly Jay MidNite, Kelso (and he has interest) and No slappz, I digress. Again, blame my pons, and throw in the sulcus of my medulla oblongata and my subsequent Glossopharyngeal nerve anatomy (in picture) while u at it.

Mane, Jones here love him some loot. And as a person that has adapted capitalism for his own well being, I take pride in using brain cells to do such, just as much as I do showing love to others. But it seems as if my economy don’t got no love for folk no more. I have personally documented several contusions to my efforts to accrue capital albeit I will not be denied.

First, the housing market is basically a bust, and it aint been this bad in 70 years. As of date houses prices have dropped maybe 15 to 20 percent in real terms and its only just beginning. Before it is all over, if you pate 100 stacks for a crib, it may end up being worth 70 stacks. Add to that the credit crunch which I figure is the worse since the post war period thanks to Sir Alan green hornet, I mean Span – which I wrote about a few weeks ago. I mean when folk loose a trillion dollar globally, it makes me think that one is in serious trouble; and don’t trust what am mother fucking bankers say. Then there are oil prices coupled with equity dropping like its jumping out an airplane. Just tell me that we got to work a lot longer to buy gas, let alone a barrel of oil. So as jay said, it dont matter, Europe at 10$ a gallon and we gon finally reach the rest of the developing world -yawl aint ready though.

The strange thing to me is that households are paying interest rates no different than in the past. Sure we just got some stimulus checks, but they will only last and benefit one quarter – the second. Yep, it is good; I mean a 100 billion for one quarter but when it is gone what happens next?

All I am saying, and Jones here aint no economist, but rather a single man that like saving and counting money, for money is to make money and not to spend. We don’t even contribute to global GDP growth, but rest assure, the rest of the world does when we cant and will move alone.

The US has weakened for past to years when the rest of the world has shown increased growth and in most cases accelerated economic growth. Europe, Japan, China, and don’t add Arab countries. Not to scare yawl living like life is all that, my query is if the rest of the world can find economic growth, why cant we folk? Cause all I’m seeing and feeling is body blow, body blow, head shot and body blow.

Financial stocks, especially those tied to the mortgage industry, helped fuel a 237-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average on Wednesday.

Freddie Mac’s shares plunged by $3.20, or 24%, on the day, closing at a new 52-week low of $10.26.

Fannie Mae’s shares fell $2.31, or 13%, to close at $15.31.

Bank of America, which recently closed on its acquisition of Countrywide Financial, saw its shares fall $1.48, or 6%, to close at $22.06.

Radian Guaranty’s shares fell by 18 cents, or 11%, to close at $1.53.

Analysts attributed Wednesday’s broad market decline to concern about a slowing economy, more bad debt at banks, and higher oil and commodity prices.

Related Posts

• Can Loan Mods Keep U.S. Out of Recession?
• Fannie Mae Cuts Dividends 30% - Down 41% in 2007
• Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Speaks On Housing Part 2
• Loan Limits Slated To Be $625,000
• James Lockhart Does Not Buy Into Fannie and Freddie Capital Concerns But Stockholders Do

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Point of order: Sorry for delay in post, forgot I was still a scientist and had two journal articles to proof and correct for Health Education Journal and Global Public Health

Now since I was finally able to post Recess – is- on and PP (which were written in April), back on the grind, which you know in most cases means loot. I am kind of frustrated with America, I mean we aint got what it takes it seems anymore. I can understand how K street gets politicians in a bind but I can’t understand why regular folk don’t see why things are the way they are economically.

We are big on crying and asking folks to do for us, but we never have a good understanding of first what needs to be done or even what or how serious the problem is. Come this November, after the general election, well really before, I hope we can come to an understanding of the aforementioned.

This country has not been in this bad of shape economically since the 1920s and 1030s. I’m sure some will disagree with me, but this is just my opinion. Right now, at least based on numbers from two years go; our domestic financial debt was more than 14 trillion dollars. Fourteen trillion. Today I suspect it is maybe 4 or 5 trillion more, but there aren’t any real numbers available, just estimates so I made my own.

And although we talk about the housing market as being a major contributor to this problem as well as multiple wars, the truth is that the financial sector is mostly to blame, along with republican and democratic leadership at the legislative and executive level. For as I said before, with regulatory constraints basically removed, this created an environment for this particular sector of our economy to go buck wild. Bill Clinton repealed the Glass –Stegall Act and bam.

Long time ago, there were regulated fees for Credit Cards for example, now they can make up fees and even charge you for paying on time or even if you pay off your monthly balance. Don’t even throw in the outrageous and wide ranging interest rates credit card companies (the financial sector) can charge, that is a whole ‘nother story. But to sum it all up, this is where the problem lies. We didn’t have this type of concern when America made stuff and had a strong manufacturing base. Since the financial sector has replaced manufacturing as our largest industry, our national debt has sky rocketed. This sector alone accounts for more than 30% of all of our national debt. Namely as a result of what is called Securitization or what can be called collateralizing debt obligation

Like I said back in the 20s and 30s when we saw similar problems, the national debt was about 250% of our gross domestic product. Today it is about 350%. What does this mean, well in simple terms, maybe a 10% reduction in the values of our houses for those of us who own one, commodity inflation (as mentioned in a prior post) and a 500 trillion dollar debt, which will eventually come back to bite us in the ass one day. I think that is one of the reasons I don’t have an ATM card. Never had one ever. So they next time you go to an ATM machine, just remember that the $3.00 they charge you to use it, is just adding to our national debt. Three cheers for the financial sector. Hip Hip Hooray.

Addendum: Love the fact folks can come in shop with dogs and kids, lay up and drink wine for free – they always end up buying stuff.