My Mind on Mortgages

According to this article on bloomberg.com banks continue to tighten their lending standards.  The measurement in which this article focuses on are derivatives which are priced to reflect the market’s expectation of future spreads between the Fed’s daily effective Federal Funds Rate and the rate at which banks are actually lending money.  When spreads increase it is [...]

In his speech to the worlds most powerful central bankers today Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke briefly about inflation according to this NY Times article.  From the article, “Mr. Bernanke, while acknowledging ‘an increase in inflationary pressure,’ reasserted his view that in the near future, the upswing in inflation from the oil and food shocks [...]

The NY Times published a good article today outlining the presidential hopeful’s views on financial regulation (click this link to view).  By the sounds of it we can expect greater governmental oversight over the financial markets in the coming years. It is no surprise that a reaction for greater financial regulation has resulted following the third financial [...]

As expected the Fed announced that they’d keep the Fed Funds Rate unchanged @ 2.00%.  Here is a link to the NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/business/economy/06fed.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.  Fed Funds Rate In their post-policy announcement statement they seemed to back away from concerns about inflation.  Their comments may help ease inflationary concerns in the financial markets which would [...]

The Fed voted to add more regulations to the mortgage lending industry today. For an overview see this article on wsj.com. Also, here is a link to the Federal Reserve website to read their announcement.

I thought it would be a good idea to post a link to my previous post which explains why Fed Rate cuts DO NOT lower mortgage rates. Here is a link to the article.

Fed Cuts by Three-Quarter Point By BRIAN BLACKSTONE and HENRY J. PULIZZI March 18, 2008 2:19 p.m. WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed its key interest rate to a three-year low and signaled more reductions are likely, unloading heavy artillery in its effort to keep the credit crunch from triggering a prolonged recession. [...]

The Fed is at it once again slashing short-term interest rates with the hopes of helping the economy avoid a steep recession. Many people, including so-called “experts” in the media, believe the recent Fed cuts are the reason why mortgage rates touched 4-year lows on January 22nd. However, if you look at history the results [...]

Interesting article on msnmoney.com about the link between the 9/11 attacks and the housing bubble: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomeFinancing/DidTerroristsCauseTheHousingMess.aspx