Moody’s Cuts Greece To Junk Moody’s cut Greece’s credit ratings to junk status (Ba1). Greece has been downgraded to non investment grade and Spain cannot seem to find any funding to rescue its savings banks. Of course, the rate on any fixed income security tied to Europe has gone up to compensate investors for the [...]

Largest Mortgage Lenders & Investors Who were, and probably still are, the largest mortgage lenders/investors in 2009? There were no real surprises. Private Mortgage Insurance Making A Comeback? PMI gave its clients some good news by reducing the minimum FICO score from 720 to 700 for CA, AZ, NV, DE, HA, NJ, and FL and [...]

NAR’s Proposal for Fannie/Freddie My daughter and I went through the McDonald’s take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, “You gave me too much money.” I said, “Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a [...]

Yesterday was a special day. In the late afternoon I visited Costco, which some people feel simultaneously represents everything that is both bad and good about the retail channel. The change in time over the weekend had made it so the setting sun shone through the front entrance, illuminating the Samsung 46 inch plasma, the [...]

I sure am happy that I am not working in the mortgage business anymore! First, Bank of America won a restraining order barring Colonial Bank from selling or otherwise disposing of $1 billion in cash and loans held by Colonial. Colonial, who most think will be taken over by the FDIC any day now (and [...]

I guess this is how some borrowers feel when they lock a loan in a volatile market. Or maybe that is how any agent who has a lock with TBW feels. Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, and the date that some are finding out yesterday’s news that a large lender is [...]

All eyes were on the radiant bride as her father escorted her down the aisle. They reached the altar and the waiting groom. The bride kissed her father and placed something in his hand. The guests in the front pews responded with ripples of laughter and even the priest smiled broadly. As her father gave [...]

There are definitely some clever folks out there. Check out these videos: Original Budweiser “Wassup!” commercial (8 years ago) Wassup commercial people 8 years later And then there is this one Treasury Bailout Update I decided that my kids should start a “financial company”. This way, they may be able to take advantage of the [...]

As I was examining the fine fleece wear at Costco yesterday afternoon, I overheard someone say, “The stock market’s fall has wiped out about $2 trillion in Americans’ retirement savings in the last 15 months. Now I have to stay on the job longer than I planned, and tighten my spending.” This is devastating news [...]

RETIREMENT HAS TO WAIT Even though I am only in my 40’s, I am ready to retire. But suddenly an article popped up saying, “Don’t retire. At least not yet.” An official at a nonprofit agency (Public Agenda in Washington, DC) said it would be “profoundly selfish and unpatriotic.” He believes that if I work [...]