US Bank Expansion, CIT Bankruptcy What do Bank USA, National Association of Phoenix; California National Bank of Los Angeles; San Diego National Bank; Pacific National Bank of San Francisco; Park National Bank of Chicago; Community Bank of Lemont, Illinois; North Houston Bank; Madisonville State Bank of Madisonville, Texas; and Citizens National Bank, of Teague, Texas [...]

The Wall Street Journal reports that, due to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars, the Federal government is now paying Americans to buy golf carts. As it turns out, the IRS has ruled that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. The federal credit “provides [...]

The scene from this movie was obviously a horrible period in history, but this take on it cracks me up every time:

Having a home office can be difficult. Last week my daughter came in and told me that, due to cost cutting measures, the board of directors was considering replacing me: with voice mail. “In fact, Dad,” she continued, “if things don’t pick up around here, every day would be casual Friday for you – you [...]

When mortgage banks are constrained by their warehouse lines, and they have to decide which loans to fund or not to fund, is that an example of “opportunity cost”? Yes, although it doesn’t show up on P&L statements. “Opportunity cost” is defined as “the value of the next best alternative forgone as the result of [...]

The FBI says that mortgage fraud is “rampant and growing.” They are also investigating reports that AIG and Bear Stearns may be in financial trouble … Overall, how is the mortgage industry doing? There are those who say, although the landscape and rules have changed, things are good. And there are others who are more [...]

Q: In these busy market times, how can you get the attention of your broker? A: Say, “Hey, waiter!” To tell us how the economy is doing, should we really look at the stock market? Probably not, as many experts believe that prices are more impacted by psychology than by fundamental items such as earnings [...]

I got very excited yesterday, and I think “my ship has finally come in”. I received an e-mail saying that I had won the “Spanish El Gordo” lottery with a prize of one million pesetas, even though Spain uses the Euro. I knew it was for real since it said, “REFERENCE NUMBER: FCB/09/001, BATCH NUMBER: [...]

CitiMortgage, who continues to scale back in sellers, and also being welcomed by warehouse lenders, made some changes to their “Best Efforts Pull-Through (BEPT) Reward program”. Basically, they are making the measurements simpler beginning in August – possibly due to their re-engineering efforts a few weeks ago.

I tried to find some jokes about state budgets, but was unsuccessful. They are simply not a laughing matter. Perhaps even as large a problem as credit card defaults, or commercial loans, both of which may require government bail outs, by the end of this month 19 states have to approve their fiscal 2010 budgets, [...]