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Reports of my demise were, as usual, exaggerated somewhat.
Since the rule change took effect in March, Fannie Mae has packaged $24 million of jumbo loans into securitie
Well, that takes care of Sen Dodd and a few other Congressmen. Fannie's probably calling it a day.
``Fannie and Freddie are catering to low-risk homeowners with high credit scores and a lot of equity in their homes,''
That's probably closer to their charter than catering to high rollers with messed up credit scores and no liquidity...
How dare they refuse to slit their own throats for the greater glory of overly high property valuations?
Ah, now we are all sublime! Welcome back . . .
What a perfectly lovely collection of critics. I'd be so very proud, myself.
"have power make benefit glorious Nation of Jumbo"...
Tanta, laughing soo hard!!
Helps after George Carlin's passing to have you reappear - lovely!
Oh, gosh, I think I'm starting to cry.
Glad to see you back, Tanta!
Catering, indeed.
Hi Tanta.
HA! Jumbo loans lie so far outside the charter of the GSEs, but they can certainly be profitable if they cherry pick!
I can't understand why they're not rushing their own death by impaling themselves on the sword of falling prices. Didn't think they were that smart.
Horrible... horrible, I say!
Crazy GSE's don't understand the PROFIT to be made in lending out vast sums of money to people who cannot pay it back! Next you know, they'll conclude that fraud and corruption in the mortgage industry are also not profitable - unreal!
I think it is high time that somebody did their Patriotic Duty and handed out a free $100,000 - tax-payer backed, of couse - to each homebuyer and pass the "Housing only goes up" bill to make sure that housing is never again affordable. Amerika needs this to continue to consume beyond its means, and the GSE's need to get on board... hahahaha!
I guess the crooks in charge will need to come up with another way to prop up the housing market!
Did anyone ever think that they would really do what they said???
Even if they did how long could they have done it for??
Not very long...
Not surprised at all.....
Good to see Tanta back..
Ciao
MS
Hi, ac and all.
I had two problems for the last several days. Felt a bit poorly and . . . finally broke down and bought a Kindle.
You know how it is, new toys must be played with immediately. Between naps.
I'm much better but I'd really prefer it if this thread didn't stray off into goat meat. Please.
Lifting the cap was a necessary, but not sufficient condition for the GSEs to buy more jumbos. That was clear to anybody whose TA ever used the expression "necessary but not sufficient condition" when they were a freshman. The rest is politics. In politics, there is given and take, and there is power. The GSEs have long acted as if they enjoy a large reservoir of political power, and this case is no different. Being granted the ability to buy jumbos was not just a favor to the GSEs (though it was a that). It was also an implicit mandate to do so. To the extent that they have ignored the implicit mandate to buy jumbos while enjoying greater ability to pile up liabilities, they have transgressed politically.
Do they have the power to go unpunished? Hmmm...how many people with direct political power are quoted? None, by my count.
Just give NAHB all the money so that they can show us how its done.
"The companies' purchases of their own securities are making them riskier because they retain 100 percent of the credit and interest-rate exposure on those assets"
So help me out here... Are the GSEs buying their own product to pump up the market value of these securities and therefore the book value of their assets?
Michigan is a "high-cost area"?
Do they have the power to go unpunished? Hmmm...how many people with direct political power are quoted? None, by my count.
Heh.
I'd call it an implicit unfunded mandate. Maybe they've gotten smarter about that.
Since they just got told they'd be funding the new FHA bailout-refi program at the same time they needed to buy jumbos.
This IS unintentional satire,isn't it?
Oh.
Hehe! Well done, Tanta! You made my day.
Are these GSE's capitalist institutions or socialist institutions?
The theoretical/philosophical ambiguities and contradictions surrounding these GES's are almost comical.
So help me out here...
Well, they always had 100% of the credit risk.
Part of me wonders what some people think the job of Liquidity in Chief is. So they're keeping the GSE (traditional) MBS market "liquid." Too bad Bloomberg didn't tell us the price level on that stuff.
Are the GSEs buying their own product to pump up the market value of these securities and therefore the book value of their assets?
no, they're buying their own product because they can earn high ROEs, especially where their mbs trading in March/April.
(welcome back, shilly!)
Tanta, fellow voracious reader - what do you think of the Kindle? Can it possibly replace the feel, smell, and weight of a real book? What about the need to plug in to the power source versus portability of a book? What's it like to read on a screen and not be able to flip pages ahead or back at will? How can it compare to the feel and smell of the 1953 printing of Crime and Punishment that I'm currently reading? Can you soak in the bathtub or on your side in bed and not lose the print in the glare if you tilt a bit in the wrong direction?
I'm just curious. I don't know anyone that has used a Kindle. (and I never read Dostoevsky in college)
The theoretical/philosophical ambiguities and contradictions surrounding these GES's are almost comical.
You know, at the end of the day, that has always been my soft spot for the GSEs. Nobody can decide whether they are creative capitalist destruction or the Red Menace. They piss off everybody at all times. They are the financial theoretical equivalent of . . . Borat. How can this not be admired?
``Had they been quicker into the marketplace, they could have helped slow the downward spiral in housing prices,'' Howard said. . . .
Jerry Howard needs a good hard kick in the scrotum.
Apparently, Fannie and Freddie have power make benefit glorious Nation of Jumbo
For the less well read what is this a reference too?
Welcome back Tanta... hope all is well...
ades , get off the blog and live a little
Less well read... LOL
Borat.
I rather enjoyed the melange in that thread between goats and scapegoats actually. But we'll keep it to the scapegoats in this one in our general glee.
``Had they been quicker into the marketplace, they could have helped slow the downward spiral in housing prices,'' Howard said. . . .
How dare Fannie and Freddie allow this to happen.
If this goes on much longer people will actually be able to buy a house without becoming a future foreclosure statistic.
Markets are good. There is only one difference between a liquid market and an illiquid market. It's called the price level.
To get liquidity, clear pricing, and move volume, the prices of housing need to fall, because they are no longer supported by risky loans to the extent they were two years ago.
Let 'em fall. Let the lenders fail. Then we pick up the pieces and move on. Protecting the jokers who bought their homes when they couldn't afford them and the dolts who lent them money anyway is how Japan became a cesspool of stagnation for 20 years.
Here's to not taking that particular example.
I rather enjoyed the melange in that thread between goats and scapegoats actually.
Uhh.... OK.
Whatever floats your goat.
So I guess that's a no....
...................
I like the term downward spiral, makes it sound a lot better than falling off a cliff. Fannie and Freddie could have been the two wings for the NAHB's Icarus's flight to freedom, but fear kept them from passing into myth and legend. Congress hoped to play the role of Daedalus once again after fashioning a labyrinth of regulations with a monstrous half mix of human hope and just plain bull waiting inside, alas, it was the role of Steven Dedalus and not the Greek genius they played. And so, as we and the NAHB weep for the passing glory that never was, we have left behind a meandering and confusing account of a day in the life of a congressman.
Glad to see you back Tanta, we worry,...
So they're keeping the GSE (traditional) MBS market "liquid." Too bad Bloomberg didn't tell us the price level on that stuff.
why?
thanks jmay.
needless to say I'm not a big Borat fan... actually never seen him...
ac, you just had to goat there.
Jagshemash. Pepsi Max. In Kazakhstan, we fight for sixty year to get rid of Communism. Here in America, following collapse of capitalist subprime market, Premier Bush and the congresspeoples beg Fannie Mac to be Communist. I come here to County of Oranges, in sunny California to see why housing now fifty year behind Kazakhstan. Chenk yeu.
Please do not slow the downward spiral.
Tanta, fellow voracious reader - what do you think of the Kindle?
So far I mostly like it. My biggest complaint is really about the current book selections available. You know how it is. Most Kindle owners are "early adopters" which means 25-year-old male technobarbarians. I don't want to insult that demographic, exactly, but it doesn't read the same stuff I read. My hope and belief, nonetheless, is that as us "later adopters" enter there will be more available in the highbrow old fart sections of the Kindle bookstore.
It is much lighter and easier to handle than a hardback. It weighs about as much as a small paperback, but the spine doesn't crack and pages don't fall out. You can page back and forth very quickly. I'm sure it's a much better experience for those of us who start at the beginning of a book and read each page until we get to the end. It might be harder on skimmers/grazers. But I am not one of those.
I wouldn't use it in the tub, but then I don't risk dropping my books in the tub. That'd be your own lookout.
There's very little glare--some, but it hasn't been a problem for me. You just adjust the angle slightly. It can indeed be read in full noonday sunlight quite easily (since it isn't backlit).
The download is amazingly fast. You really can pull it out of your pocket at the coffee shop, order a new book, and have it in a few minutes. The connection to Amazon eats battery power, but you can turn that off after you've got your book and then it uses very little battery power just reading.
Quite frankly, if I'd had this thing the last time I spent a week in the hospital, I'd be a much saner person today. Ditto the time I used to spend on the road in hotel rooms. It's a whole lot easier to carry than a week's worth of books, and you never run out of reading material.
I still think it's too expensive, but there it is. I try not to think of all the overpriced books I bought in some airport (or the hospital gift shop) over the years in desperation. If you've ever been in that situation, the Kindle would surely end up cost-effective.
Tanta
Don't spend too much time with the Kindle - you are missed. But please go OT enough to tell us how you like your new toy. Windexing my book-reading x41 tablet for a few seconds was enough to kill it.
GSE potassium not good like Kazhazstan potassium.
Welcome back Tanta.
"Had they been quicker into the marketplace, they could have helped slow the downward spiral in housing prices"
Again, why should it be government's goal to make sure house prices stay high? In some places, prices DOUBLED in a matter of 3 years...why should it be policy to prevent prices from coming back down to reasonable and sustainable levels?
Asked another way, why are we not trying to keep food and energy prices high as well? Everyone needs food. Everyone uses energy. Everyone needs shelter. Why is it suddenly a good idea to keep shelter prices artificially high, but not a good idea to do the same for food and energy?
Actually, through the farm bills, we do prop up food prices. I guess the solution is to make sure that energy prices stay at a 'permanently high plateau' as well. Has anyone suggested that logic to the presidential candidates?
why?
Because it would be . . . context. As you said, it's about ROE. The Bloomberg piece makes it sound like they're buying back stock or something.
isn't that the whole purpose of Fannie and Freddie? to make and facilitate low-risk mortgages for those who are able to purchase homes????
Tanta, is "My Pet Goat" available for Kindle yet?
apparently Tanta is one of a very few who have bought the Kindle as Amazon refuses to disclose how many it has sold....
I think it will go the way of the 8-track. All about content (as already mentioned) you wonder why I-tunes can't get the movie studios to play ball with licensing major movies and you have to wonder about a device that has a slow adoption rate with supposedly "free" content available.
keep us informed about your experiences......TIA
Ciao
MS
So what happens when elected representatatives actively oppose the bureaucrats who are actually trying to serve the taxpayer and their shareholders?
This cracked me up too! This is a time when I really appreciate your commentary, as I would have read this accepting the opinions of the people interviewed, otherwise.
isn't that the whole purpose of Fannie and Freddie? to make and facilitate low-risk mortgages for those who are able to purchase homes????
The problem is they're focusing too much on the "low risk" part and too little on the "hand out money like candy and get congress re-elected" part.
Windexing my book-reading x41 tablet for a few seconds was enough to kill it.
I actually suspect that my biggest problem with the Kindle will be keeping it clean. I do tend to read at meals.
The thing is a bit hard to handle at first. It is designed perfectly for the actual reading part--the page forward/page back bars are right on the edge of the thing and very sensitive. What is hard is picking it up or putting it down or moving it without changing the page or putting your greasy fingers on the screen. It takes a while to learn how to grasp it without doing something to it.
I really hope they don't start adding dumb features to it. It already plays MP3 files. Like I need it to be a book and an iPod. It has a crackberry keyboard--you need that for ordering books--but I sure hope they don't try turning it into a PDA/laptop replacement. I just want a book reader.
I got Shnaps Sr. a Kindle for Xmas. He is pretty far from a 25 year old technobarbarian. In fact, I would be willing to bet there is a VCR flashing 12:00 somewhere at his residence.
Still, he loves the kindle and uses it all the time.
Call your Senators now to prevent this $300 billion forclosure bill!
83 Voted Yes for Cloture and to move to a final vote.
U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote
(202) 224-3121. Please call.
aren't the VCRs supposed to be blinking 12:00?
Plenty of jumbos in Texas where people can afford them.
Fannie, Freddie,
You go girls! Hahaha
In my country you can buy wife for three cans of insecticide.
I love that line.
In a world without books what will the goats eat?
Call your Senators now to prevent this $300 billion forclosure bill!
Does this provide funds for $300 billion in mortgages to be refinanced or $300 billion in potential losses to be absorbed by taxpayers?
Minyanville has a slightly
different take on this than Bloomberg.
Expired
"Escariot writes:
aren't the VCRs supposed to be blinking 12:00?
Escariot | 06.24.08 - 1:41 pm | #
What's a VCR?
AC $300 Billion in funds for refinancing. But what if they default? And why should taxpayer dollars be used for this kind of bad government "investment"?
Here's a quote from a poster on another site
"The article cleverly rewords what is happening in the bill. "If lenders agree to a substantial loss" means they are agreeing to reduce the principal owed on the loan.
In other words someone who clearly couldn't afford the house they are in, effectively a theft, is now able to keep the property and get money back. How many of us would be happy if the article described someone who bought an expensive car that couldn't afford it, and was able to keep the car and owe less money on it?
Why should any of us be responsible if thieves get to keep what they stole? Why don't we all just get bigger houses than we can afford and let the whole financial system [removed]? I'm rather irritated that the system isn't being left alone to fix itself. I don't care if my house value goes down in the process... I'd rather have that happen than let someone with a bigger house they couldn't afford keep that house. "
The article is either comedy gold or journalistic idiocy... hard to tell what they are going for. It's nice to see someone in the mortgage industry not explicit plowing head-long into a forced bailout, though.
I guess it falls to the FHA and Dodd to take up the slack in making idiotic taxpayer-backed loans to people with no chance of repaying them. Fortunately, they seem more than capable of spending trillions of taxpayer dollars with no regard to consequences. If not, we might find ourselves in even further into a housing correction, and possibly into housing affordability (god forbid)!
Have you ever wondered what "an implicit government guarantee" for these GSE's means explicitly?
I'm almost tempted to put these socialist superheroes on the stress test to find out what this "implicit government guarantee" thing is.
At what point of the stress test, would a guy with a white goatee and a tall hat come running? Would he open his wallet?
Hilarious post. Thanks Tanta
In fact, I would be willing to bet there is a VCR flashing 12:00 somewhere at his residence.
Of course there is. Also on the microwave, the coffee maker, the CD player, and probably the vacuum cleaner and the toothbrush. One of the great things about the Kindle is that it doesn't (yet) have an effing clock in it.
I sure hope Amazon has figured out "KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID."
Stealth-
Here's an email and phone number list per senator- I called and emailed.
U.S. Senate: Senators Home
Were getting sold down the river. How would you like it if Juan the strawberry picker gets a loan reduction for not paying his loan while you pay as stated and get stuck with higher loan amount..
Please Mr. Bush veto this insane free ride for banks, lenders, ratings agencies and borrowers.
Peak stupidity strikes again!
What's a VCR?
Mike in Long Island | 06.24.08 - 1:51 pm | #
It's the thingy the TV sits o
AC $300 Billion in funds for refinancing. But what if they default? And why should taxpayer dollars be used for this kind of bad government "investment"?
We'll I guess what bugs me is that public sentiment seems to be strongly against a bailout, yet the congress can't act fast enough to push it through without bothering to make a case as to why it's necessary.
Seems like they should at least try to sway public opinion or make some attempt to validate their position versus the popular one.
This is a "representative republic" though, so in the end they can go against popular opinion if they want.
What's a VCR?
Mike in Long Island
It's like a DVD player that uses 8-track tapes.
just curious...being in the business, what is the rational of regional banks who have below market rates on jumbo loans that can't be sold in the secondary market? My business comes from NYC and Philly, lots of referrals from wealth managers, and some banks have rates a half percent below the big boys. Have no idea how this could be a good idea for them...and it is keeping bastard mortgage brokers afloat because of this niche
Have you ever wondered what "an implicit government guarantee" for these GSE's means explicitly?
IIRC the US government has stated several times that it means nothing.
I think if you want real guarantees Ginnie is your gal.
GSEs Refuse To Save The Day
If the GSEs' critics had their way, you wouldn't have to change the headline; you'd just read "refuse" as a noun.
In any event, I think the Senate has this issue adequately covered. Why throw the GSEs on a grenade when it can be the taxpayers instead?
PS. Took me a while to realize the Borat reference wasn't a typo.
...Fannie and Freddie are catering to low-risk homeowners with high credit scores and a lot of equity in their homes,
Classic. Maybe they should change their mission from promoting home ownership (since these have the highest likely hood of actual ownership) to subsidizing the real-estate industrial complex.
"It's the thingy the TV sits on
Escariot | 06.24.08 - 1:56 pm |
and
It's like a DVD player that uses 8-track tapes.
ac | 06.24.08 - 1:57 pm | #
Gotcha - but 8 track tape? I think I've heard of that - that's the only way to hear "Dancing Queen" by ABBA right?
Great to see you back, Tanta!
Headline: GSEs Refuse to Catch Falling Knives!
Also I believe th senate vote this morning on foreclosure aid bill was catalyst for financials springing to green. It was around 10:40 when it came out on wire...
We the sheeple of the united states do hearby declare to our elected officials-Go swimming off the farallon islands! Please! Make sure you cut yourself as your shark friends will find you easier..
It sucks to get screwed and not even feel it!
That doesn't sound like a rational rationale to me, Anonymous.
Can you provide a specific example?
Howdy Tanta- Nice (and always amusing) to have you back!
How funny that a Managed Funds Assoc., a hedge-fund lobby group (http://www.mfainfo.org) is crying foul now.
MFA -- haven't heard that acronym since junior high, but it does seem applicable to this group..
Sure. Go to 404 - File Not Found
By the way, I don't work for them, or for a mortgage broker. I work for a major retail institution. 30 year fixed jumbo money is about 7 percent today at best. Jumbo ARMs fluctuate, and are mostly in the mid 6's. This bank, and another competitor similar in size (Hudson City) are at 6.5% to 1.5 million...and arms lower than that. Again, Chase, Wells, Countrywide, B of A, Wachovia, etc, are all above 7.
Amazon, keeping it simple? Amazon who tried tried selling the kitchen sink on-line before managing a profit on books? Possible. To be fair though, it's hard to find a cell phone that's just a thing you talk into.
"How would you like it if Juan the strawberry picker gets a loan reduction for not paying his loan while you pay as stated and get stuck with higher loan amount."
Ethnicity has what, exactly, to do with this?
I like the term downward spiral, makes it sound a lot better than falling off a cliff.
Visually speaking, a downward spiral is a Wile E. Coyote moment with a defective parachute. You get the idea.
Welcome back Ms Tanta.
cd-
done to both in my state...thanks for the link.
disgusting is it not?
Ciao
MS
Tanta said:
One of the great things about the Kindle is that it doesn't (yet) have an effing clock in it.
Alas, I have my doubts that the Kindle's future will not be feature bloat. There is a tension inherent in wanting your high-tech device to be low-tech. If you really want low-tech, you'll have to stick with the dead-tree version.
Those 25-yr. old technobarbarians' [I think the politically correct term is "Wired reader"] willingness to pay for gadgets is largely a function of feature density. If Kindle 2.0 can't also download your RSS feed and Maxim (ahem, for the articles), it will be viewed as a failure at product launch.
-Margin, a Recovered Technobarbarian
PS. [insert obligatory goat joke here]
Does anyone know who to send thank-you notes to at Fannie/Freddie? Seriously - is it all Mudd and Syron?
cd writes:
Also I believe th senate vote this morning on foreclosure aid bill was catalyst for financials springing to green. It was around 10:40 when it came out on wire...
Could be, but I wonder if the word is out that there will be no rate hike tomorrow.
As Barbara Bush likes to say "let them eat cake"
I'm stunned that my senator, John Kyl, voted to do the right thing for once. He probably wants to spend that $300 billion on Iraq, though.
Odd that the Kindle's reading selection is aimed at Valley geeks rather than those of the literary kind. I thought Amazon would offer most classics that are in the public domain. No royalties, so sales would be high margin.
There simplay has to be an aspirational market - "with this one $50 download, you can have every great book you should read (but never will) on your Kindle".
Another quote from Bloomberg:
For a loan of more than $417,000, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require a minimum down payment of 10 percent and a credit score of 660. That compares with 3 percent and 580 for loans under $417,000 at Fannie Mae; and 5 percent, with no minimum score, at Freddie Mac.
417K is still a heck of a lot of money, at least as I see it. Surely the restrictions on such loans are greater than implied in this paragraph?
Apparently these are the only people who understand what this bill is really about:
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Bunning (R-KY)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Vitter (R-LA)
And if I were the senator from Idaho methinks I would have added a letter or two to my last name.....
Ciao
MS
Malaclypse-I apologize, it wasn't meant to be ethnic jab, read about it and came to my mind while writing comment..
MS- It's sad and disgusting, though it's more so for my daughter and the youth of today. Our country has become addicted to entitlement...
Someone mentioned that constitution stated that representation was supposed to be 50000 to 1 and now it's a million to one. I would run for congress if it was back to original. I could walk door to door in 6 months.
MS-Good find, although his yes vote was flushed down the toilet because thier are too many ass wipers in congress today!
There is a tension inherent in wanting your high-tech device to be low-tech. If you really want low-tech, you'll have to stick with the dead-tree version.
Well, I guess that says it all. The thing is, I don't want a "high-tech device." I want an easier and less cumbersome way to buy and read and store books. How odd that my choice is either sixteenth-century technology or high-technological redundancy. I already have devices that let me surf the net, call people, and deal a hand of solitaire. I still fail to understand this need for each device to do everything all the other devices do.
Then again I am just an old fart some days.
It sounds to me like the GSE are already capital impaired and following the rules they were set up with.
They are buying some jumbo but how many people qualify with the proper percentage down and verifiable income requirements?
Not damn many is the answer.
And they still have to package this stuff into MBS to sell and investors have to be willing to accept them. So, the magic of saying its a GSE MBS isn't doing much.
"Alas, I have my doubts that the Kindle's future will not be feature bloat. There is a tension inherent in wanting your high-tech device to be low-tech. If you really want low-tech, you'll have to stick with the dead-tree version."
There's an answer to this: a configurable interface with two or three presets to exclude, for some people, everything that doesn't include reading.
And then make a variety of models of different levels of power, with the "bottom" being a mere bookreader. Apple's actually pursued that strategy successfully with its iPod line.
Apparently the downloads are cheap compared to the price for an actual book. Thus the Kindle will be popular, I suspect, with dedicated and price-conscious bookworms. Until or unless something better comes along.
Tanta,
That was highly poetic: " catering to low-risk homeowners"...LOL!
TCA- Could it also be the move today in financials is tied to fed making TAF permanent? some other misc. announcement...
I thought Amazon would offer most classics that are in the public domain. No royalties, so sales would be high margin.
Well, they do offer a lot of that. I just already own all that stuff, in crumbling yellowed dusty Penguin paperbacks. As I said, it's an issue for us older farts. For those who don't already own the collected works of Charles Dickens, it's a deal.
Surely the restrictions on such loans are greater than implied in this paragraph?
Yes, they are. GSE guidelines are elaborate matrices, where max LTV or min FICO changes with loan type, occupancy, etc. They're just putting the lowest possible FICO score with the highest possible LTV, which isn't how it works.
There's also a big difference between the highest possible LTV that they will do and the typical LTV they do.
And once again the mainstream press forgets about the mortgage insurers. The GSEs do only as much above-80% LTV business as the MIs will write policies on (now that the second lien lenders have quit that game).
CD-
those are the the No voters.....
I still would change my name....sort of make an easy softball target....
At least he did the right thing.
Tanta-
What say you??? I probably already know but would be interested to hear a relevant response based on the vote..
Ciao
MS
cd writes:
TCA- Could it also be the move today in financials is tied to fed making TAF permanent? some other misc. announcement...
Who knows? I've given up trying to figure out what will happen next. I do hope this is the catalyst for a big drop in SKF. I sold all my holdings at around $130 a couple of weeks ago. I'd like to get back in, but I'm not comfortable doing so at the current price.
Hmmmmm. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are catering to buyers with good credit that are willing to make a down payment and shunning the overpriced inflated, fraud ridden california market. Now, tell me again, why that is wrong? Wake up. common sense hits you in the face and you are whining about it? Thank god they are smarter than the senators that passed the bill.
Tanta said: "Then again I am just an old fart some days."
Hey - I resemble that remark!
"One of the great things about the Kindle is that it doesn't (yet) have an effing clock in it."
Sure there is, it's just a pain to find. Go to Home->Menu->Settings and there is a clock there that I believe is kept accurate with CDMA every time you turn on the wireless.
I've had the Kindle for about 2 weeks and love it. It's really reignited the love of reading for me. I've finished about 4 books on it so far and have another 10 or so queued up. It's a great place to keep big anthologies around and ready to read at any time, like all of Mark Twain or Arthur Conan Doyle or Shakespeare.
Re: "old fart some days."
Be honest about the number of days!
Because it would be . . . context. As you said, it's about ROE.
well yes, it would be context for why they're buying mbs, but it's not clear to me how the mbs purchases relate to the jumbo issue; i don't think mbs and jumbos are competing for balance sheet based on ROE.
MS-My bad..He was on the good team today.... I would change my name too!
TCA-I'm out of SKF too, did dip into SRS because CRE headlines are turning negative..
Homebuilders up today on foreclosure bill announcement..Crazy..
cd-
IMO this is not about "juan" or any other individual.
This is about I-banks refusing to take medicine and now they get the implicit backing of my (and your) tax dollars to play a little longer.
Wrapping themselves in a flag certainly doesn't hurt the perception of what the want the tax payer to believe.
Individuals will loose homes....it is and will continue to happen. What we saw today was the banks getting a free pass to live (a bit) longer.
That is all
Ciao
MS
Just to clarify on the Kindle book selection thing--it's not like music. Those of us who owned the Well-Tempered Clavier on vinyl had to buy a cassette and then a CD and whatever to keep up with something to play it on.
Well, my collection of a couple thousand ('fraid so) dead-tree books do not have to be replaced with a new format. So I'm not going to buy the collected works of Shakespeare for my Kindle when I already own them in dead tree versions.
I am quite aware that makes me a different demographic than a younger person who hasn't already blown all that money over thirty years on a book collection. The trouble is that I'm also rarely interested in bestsellers. I'm not that highbrow; I love a decent (literate) murder mystery. But my definition of literate writing is not exhausted by the Oprah Book Club selections.
There are readable things available--they do seem to be going for a wide selection of recent award winners, for instance. And it's not like I need every new Umberto Eco book the minute it gets published (god help me).
It actually reminds me of a middlin' sized suburban strip mall bookstore. There is a "classics" section and some decent new fiction and nonfiction amongst all the self-help books and gamer lit and bosom-rippers. But it's not exactly like wandering into Blackwell's.
i don't think mbs and jumbos are competing for balance sheet based on ROE.
Agree entirely. I don't claim to understand the Bloomberg reporter's point either, but it sounds like the idea that they're trying to keep traditional MBS prices up (and coupon down?). I don't have any idea why they think that.
TCA-I'm out of SKF too, did dip into SRS because CRE headlines are turning negative..
SRS is tempting, but it hurt badly the first half of the year. I need to see it sustain some momentum before I'm willing to go that route again.
I'm in TWM because small companies are going to get killed in the next year and QID because all the talking heads are touting tech as a relative safe haven. Being enployed in tech, I know better.
MS, I didn't intend it to come out as malaclypse noted and I replied back with...
Malaclypse-I apologize, it wasn't meant to be ethnic jab, read about it and came to my mind while writing comment..
Living in California, I just read about another false income loan and it popped in my head as I was typing..
Believe it or not this kind of mistake usually only happens when I'm mad or thinking about Jessica Alba
what a great decision GSE made. It's either that or collapse later. I do have one complaint though. They should have kept it under wraps better. Now the politicians will be out for their blood.
"There is a tension inherent in wanting your high-tech device to be low-tech." Well, I guess I'm suddenly an old-enough fart to remember when programmers worried about and competed on their elegant and efficient code rather than spewing out bug-laden operating systems that eat up half your drive with animated paper-clips. There is no reason High-tech can't be a simple and efficient as a scalpel. But I lay the roots of that imbroglio at the feet of marketing rather than programming because it's infected cars a.k.a. mobile cup-holders too.
Those of us who owned the Well-Tempered Clavier on vinyl had to buy a cassette and then a CD and whatever to keep up with something to play it on.
it's sure nice to have your wrinkly snout bach, Tanta.
I don't even have to check how my moronic senators voted on the bailout bill... I live in California. No look, they were "strong proponents of this legislation." Is it sadder that our "representatives" are acting directly, blatantly, and purposefully against the interests of their constituents, or that not only will they avoid getting shot/hung for it, they will likely get re-elected due to the overall level of idiocy among the voters?
Well, unless the GSEs are prepared to go the "no-doc, no dp, no worries, mate!" route, the market was going to continue to fall. Until those price/income ratios return to some sort of normal range, the reality is that there are a lot of jumbo properties in CA that have to fall to conforming before the market can absorb them. I bet Fannie is picking up quite a few of those loans right now.
Great post, Tanta. I saw the article and flipped over here wondering if you had seen it too.
Nick,
I hear ya, I still sent Barbara and Diane an email and called to dig into thier interns..
I have the original sony e-book - the Kindle is the same only with wireless. I love it. Have you any idea how many books you can get on a 1gb sd-micro card?
As far as content - well, file sharing hasn't been restricted to mp3's for some time now. Moving swiftly on, project gutenberg has a lot of content that you can download for free, and pretty much anything in pdf form can be put on to these devices. There are a lot of older, out of copyright books slowly being put onto the web in one form or another. I'm reading Mises' book on Money that way right now. Caveat, you may need to convert the fonts/format a little, but there are several nice public domain tools available to do this for you. You certainly aren't restricted to just what amazon puts out.
Mobipocket eBook Creator
being one.
I suspect the big appeal is to people who read regularly/all the time, because it lets you easily carry a bunch of books around you for spare moments.
Tanta said:
not like I need every new Umberto Eco book the minute it gets published (god help me).
If he should ever publish a plot, however, do let us know. But I won't hold my breath.
No wonder Fannie and Freddie are doing so well. They are down only 70% in the last 9 months. Imagine what would have happend if the FED hadnt gotten involved. And for some weird reason Tanta doesnt remember the 2003-04 debacles for Freddie and Fannie.
P.S. In 2003-2004 only a GSE could lose money in RE.
Mal,
AC was remembering a story in the SF Cronicle from 14 months ago that referenced a migrant worker and his spouse (combined weekly income --$600) whou purchased a $720,000 house.
The only thing incorrect was that his name wasn't Juan, it was Alberto.
Here's the link
Impossible loan turns dream home into nightmare
And, btw, the story is well worth a re-read to remind everyone how we got here -- even the late, (un)lamented New Century is part of the cast of characters.
"Here I come to save the day!"
Hit "post" too soon -- I wasn't defending feature bloat in my Kindle comment, by the way. I called it bloat for a reason.
The problem is that the consumer electronics market is more driven by 'features', rather than functionality.
Take the Macbook Air. Like it or not, someone finally manufactured a small, light-weight laptop that wasn't a child's toy. And yet the tech press wailed at length about all the features it didn't have, such as DVD playback. Somehow, "not back-breaking" was not a feature. Go figure.
< /OT soapbox >
Dodd/Shelby's FHA act passed Senate cloture 83-9, as noted above.
So far it doesn't appear the appearance of Dodd's impropriety has affected jack squat.
That's a bit depressing.
What would be great is Google Book offering all the out of print/in copywrite stuff for a buck. That would be a win/win.
ZackAttack said: "So far it doesn't appear the appearance of Dodd's impropriety has affected jack squat."
Well, heck no. He's a fellow club member, and gets a free pass on that trifling indiscretion.
I expected the Yes vote out of Feinstein (her husband is a major douchebag)
I am a bit surprised that Boxer would swallow the kool-aid though. She just went down several pegs for wrapping herself in a flag and calling it about "homeowners"...
Ciao
MS
Ziggurat:
"What would be great is Google Book offering all the out of print/in copywrite stuff for a buck. That would be a win/win."
Or you could just pick it up from Project Gutenberg for free. Google "free books Kindle" and you'll find a bunch of people who have created "books" that are just lists of links to thousands of Gutenberg books.
Free books for the Kindle via Project Gutenberg:
Getting Project Gutenberg books on your Kindle « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books
MS, Rich,
TWM looks like a go..
Tanta writes:
So far I mostly like it. My biggest complaint is really about the current book selections available. You know how it is. Most Kindle owners are "early adopters" which means 25-year-old male technobarbarians. I don't want to insult that demographic, exactly..
Wrong on the demographics.
This was in the SJ Mercury News yesterday
Digital Crossroads: Study finds good qualities in gadget hounds - SiliconValley.com
So, Dick Syron is still the man. That's what I expected.
I am glad they are sticking to their good sense.
Belated welcome back, Tanta!
Available selection has been the reason I've been hesitating on getting a kindle. In my case, though, my dream of dreams is being able to carry around all kinds of big heavy reference books-- and some that are not so heavy, but still feel like an albatross when you're traveling. I'm imagining studying for econ exams on the airplane to Thailand and then sitting on the beach with a beer and earning my passage with my translating work without having to carry my 5 hundred pounds of technical dictionaries with me-- or just carrying a bunch of guidebooks for all of the places I might like to visit.
None of that is possible yet-- I'm hoping very soon now.
Tanta
Come to Chicago. Wander into Seminary Co-op and forget Blackwell's.
Dead Tree Lover
from what I see on the ground,loans are going to young people paying to much for older property.Foreclosures will stay very high for some time to come.
I thought Tanta doing Borat sounded familiar. Krugman did Borat back in March as well.
Credit crisis for make harm glorious republic - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com
Naiiiice. Hay Fayve.
"...my neighbor Nushuktan Tulyiagby. He is pain in my ***holes. I get a window from a glass, he must get a window from a glass. I get a step, he must get a step. I get a clock radio, he cannot afford. Great success!"
Some naiiiice backstory on the Borat/Mahir controversy:
Sacha Baron Cohen | Can Mahir Sue Borat?
Two celebrity sascha cohens on one econ blog -- whodathunk