Grant’s Interest Rate Observer founder Jim Grant shared views on the US debt ceiling debate, US Treasury markets, the gold standard, and Europe’s debt crisis with Bloomberg Monday. When Grant talks, it’s worth listening.
July 2011
ZeroHedge ran a post from OfTwoMinds today with eight steps to fix the economy. Among the recommendations are requiring all banks to mark MBS, real estate and all other assets to market daily/weekly and imposing massive fines for mark-to-market misrepresentations. Doing so would mean writing off at least $5.8 trillion of fantasy “value,” most of
Here are some tidbits for the day and some comments on MBS markets this past week: -The cost of placing ads on Facebook is rising rapidly: the “cost per click” of an ad placed on Facebook has increased by 74% over last year. -Reader’s Digest Association, the 90-year-old publishing and marketing company that emerged from
Housing -Housing Starts (annualized): 629k June vs. 549k May, highest since Jan. -Housing Permits (annualized): 624k June vs. 609k May -Homebuilder confidence flat in June (from 7/18) -Graphs below puts Starts/Permits in perspective -There must be 1.5m Housing Starts a year to keep pace with population growth assuming that the number of people per household
-5 Funds With Largest Outflows of 2011 (InvestmentNews) -Foreclosures See 25% Drop 1st Half of 2011 (NatMortgagePro) -Is Bernanke Adopting Worst Greenspan Policies (TheBigPicture) -Why You Avoid Your Most Important Financial Task (NYT Bucks Blog) -Home Remodeling To Highest Level Since 2004 (HousingWire) -A Few Things To Remember About Debt (Economist via Minyanville) -The Problem
Five-time Jeopardy winner Rich Cordray will be nominated by President Barack Obama to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He is the former Ohio Attorney General (he lost his bid for re-election last November), and currently the assistant director for enforcement at the bureau. And to round things out, he was a onetime law clerk
There are no important economic fundamentals today, but here’s this week’s outlook and there is an interesting indicator of consumer spending from Consumer Metrics. This is a measure of online shopping. Recently it shows a healthy recovery for the first time in 19 months. This difficulty (in part because this index is relatively new) is
There are no important economic fundamentals today, but here’s this week’s outlook and there is an interesting indicator of consumer spending from Consumer Metrics. This is a measure of online shopping. Recently it shows a healthy recovery for the first time in 19 months. This difficulty (in part because this index is relatively new) is
Rates were down slightly last week but there’s reason for caution coming into this week: there’s no deal yet on U.S. budget proposals and until there’s a budget agreement, the U.S. debt ceiling won’t be raised. The U.S. will reach its borrowing limit August 2, but it takes time to process legislation and money flows
Rates were down slightly last week but there’s reason for caution coming into this week: there’s no deal yet on U.S. budget proposals and until there’s a budget agreement, the U.S. debt ceiling won’t be raised. The U.S. will reach its borrowing limit August 2, but it takes time to process legislation and money flows
Snapshot of next week, click image for details. WeeklyBasis review of last week, outlook for next week coming Sunday.
CONFORMING RATES ($200,000 to $417,000) 0 POINT 30 Year: 4.5% (4.62% APR) FHA 30 Year: 4.25% (4.37% APR) 5/1 ARM: 3.125% (3.245% APR) SUPER-CONFORMING RATES ($417,001 to $729,750 cap by county) 0 POINT 30 Year: 4.625% (4.745% APR) FHA 30 Year: 4.375% (4.495% APR) 5/1 ARM: 3.375% (3.495% APR) JUMBO RATES ($729,751 to $2,00,000) 1
CONFORMING RATES ($200,000 to $417,000) 0 POINT 30 Year: 4.5% (4.62% APR) FHA 30 Year: 4.25% (4.37% APR) 5/1 ARM: 3.125% (3.245% APR) SUPER-CONFORMING RATES ($417,001 to $729,750 cap by county) 0 POINT 30 Year: 4.625% (4.745% APR) FHA 30 Year: 4.375% (4.495% APR) 5/1 ARM: 3.375% (3.495% APR) JUMBO RATES ($729,751 to $2,00,000) 1
-Areas most impacted by loan limit cuts (LendingTree Chief Economist) -Case Shiller Head David Blitzer on Home Prices & Foreclosures (S&P) -Google+ Reaches 10 Million In 2 Weeks (VentureBeat) -Why Loan Limit Cuts Aren’t a Big Deal (TBP) -Key Earnings Reports Next Week (Bespoke) -Debt Ceiling Charade (CalculatedRisk) -Interest Rate Stories (Krugman)
The popular press continues to point out that while a record share of Americans want to buy homes, both U.S. government and corporate policies (often working at cross-purposes) are making it more difficult. Of course, it is Wells or Chase or the servicer who bear the brunt of the liability if the loan “goes south,”
Consumer Sentiment –July sentiment 63.8, down from 71.5 in June -Lowest since March 2009 June Consumer Inflation -CPI Overall Month/Month: -0.2% -CPI Core (less food & energy) Month/Month: 0.3% -CPI Overall Year/Year: 3.6% -CPI Core (less food & energy) Year/Year: 1.6% -Today’s full report -Same story we already know: Core inflation is tame. -Overall gets
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