Europe crisis update from 12/9 to today.

The Economist laid out a plan to save the euro this week, saying that any other alternatives are far worse. Below is a summary of their four-point plan and links to their full stories this week. Both are must-reads. So far Europe has only done #2 of the Economist’s four point plan, as announced last [...]

Below is a link to Bernanke’s full Jackson Hole speech today along with underlined emphasis from CreditWritedowns. Bernanke didn’t expand on monetary policy nor explicit QE3 clues beyond what was already provided in the August 9 FOMC statement. He said that those topics would be explored more deeply at the next FOMC September 20-21. The [...]

Great infographic from Visible via Ritholtz. Click image for full size.

This evening’s Originations linkfest … note: the WSJ story on investors’ rate outlook is on long-duration Treasuries which are a benchmark for U.S. rates, but mortgage rates come from mortgage bonds (MBS), not Treasuries. But the indecision is similar on MBS. -STUDY: Mass Indecision On Rate Outlook (WSJ) -Misunderstanding Rent vs. Buy Dynamic (Ritholtz) -Bank [...]

Rates dropped .125% last week continuing an unpredictable three-week down trend. The first catalyst was awful GDP data two Fridays ago, then last Friday began with a questionable jobs report and ended with S&P downgrading the U.S. This picture I took best describes last week’s stunning volatility. Net result: mortgage bonds up, rates down. But [...]

Before the S&P downgrade last Friday, I wrote the following about the debt deal: I have said little about the default possibility simply because I estimated the possibility at near-zero. From my point-of-view what happened was an enormous and bogus media campaign getting people worked up about something an then an illusion that something had [...]

Here we are after S&P’s U.S. downgrade (here’s my take) and stocks are down again and the bond market is rallying. Markets set rates, not rating agencies, and it would seem that money is flowing into bullion and into the bond market, as many expected would happen. Perhaps the United States really is still viewed [...]

Here’s an S&P downgrade/U.S. budget edition of my Originations linkfest, complete with an epic photoshop from my boy h1ghway. Background for the less pop culturally obsessed: the pimp who sets Idiocracy’s nation-in-decline plot in motion is named Upgrayedd—pronounced ‘upgrade’ but “spelled with two Ds for a double-dose of his pimping.” -S&P Downgrade Q&A (Reuters) -Fear [...]

Remember being glued to your computer or TV in Fall 2008 trying to figure out what was next in the market meltdown? The debt ceiling circus in DC and S&P’s subsequent U.S. downgrade have captured consumers’ attention in a similar way. But this topic is much more complicated and consumers mostly get information in two [...]