Mortgage rate update – Scott Grannis -…As the second chart shows, the fundamentals driving these rates (i.e., 10-year Treasury yields and the spread between MBS and Treasury yields that investors demand in order to compensate them for the prepayment risk of mortgage-backed securities) suggest that we [...]

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To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

Securities firm Keefe, Bruyette has identified 393 banks with Texas ratios greater than 100%.  If we assume that 75% of them will fail (our number, not Keefe’s), that would represent $141 billion in assets, and assuming a 25% loss ratio (our number, not theirs), this would cost the FDIC $35 [...]

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I received an e-mail from a branch manager of a mid-sized brokerage. She said, “A few years ago, during our branch meetings, agents would try to one-up each other with news from investors, who had the best rates, the fastest underwriting turn times. Now, our branch meetings are like a wake. The only news is [...]

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  wow – Bank Failures Should Destroy CEOs, Buffett Tells Fox – By Jamie McGee – President Barack Obama’s proposal to regulate banks should include a requirement that chief executive officers and their spouses forfeit their assets when companies fail, billionaire Warren Buffett said on Fox Business Network.  “There ought [...]

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