Thanks to Ira Artman for introducing me to Mark. - BC

This Week’s Las Vegas Capital Markets Conference Holds The Key To Restarting The Economy  (post contains practical suggestions)

Starting Sunday, the remnants of the securitization industry will be at the annual American Securitization Forum (”ASF”) Conference in Las Vegas. Just as the securitization and securities industry led the nation into the current crisis, if the economy is going to revive itself, this industry needs to lead the financial sector out of the crisis. The shadow capital markets based banking system that existed in 2006 and early 2007 dwarfed the capacity of the banking industry and drove both healthy and unhealthy lending. While it is easy to blame banks for not lending enough to consumers and businesses, without restarting the capital markets, banks simply do not have enough capacity to turn around the economy. Simply put, for the economy to turn around, the capital markets need to restart first. …. CONTINUE READING

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Let’s Do The Time Warp Again; Advocates of a 4.5% Mortgage Rate Must Have Come From Another Time And Place

When I hear people talk about the government essentially mandating that banks and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae originate 4.5% 30 year fixed mortgages I think of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Time Warp. Members of Congress and economists who are pushing underpriced mortgages must be from another time and place otherwise they couldn’t seriously advocate this really dumb idea. I admit that 4.5% mortgages make for good populist TV news “sound bites”, and 4.5% mortgages will definitely stimulate housing, but hyper low interest rate mortgages will sooner or later kill off whatever is left of the banking, mortgage banking and financial services sectors. And, that makes 4.5% mortgages a bad idea …  CONTINUE READING