Loan Apps: Refinance Demand Jumps, Purchases Down
Thursday, July 21st, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »The Mortgage Bankers Association today reported a significant increase in the number of refinance applications taken last week, purchase demand on the other hand declined slightly.The Market Composite Index, which takes both purchases and refinances into account, rose by 15.5% ...
UCLA: No Recession, Only “Recession Depression”
Sunday, June 6th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »LOS ANGELES--In its first quarterly report of 2008, released March 11, the UCLA Anderson Forecast remains confident that the national economy was not in a recession through January 2008 and continues to forecast weak growth but no official recession in ...
Europe Shows Resilience in Face of U.S. Downturn
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »FRANKFURT: Europe is shrugging off the thunderclouds in the United States, with new surveys Wednesday showing rising business confidence in Germany, France, and Belgium. The president of the European Central Bank even dampened hopes for a cut in interest rates ...
Fed Funds Rate Down to 3% in 2008?
Friday, May 21st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »According to Larry Kudlow writing in his most recent column: "The Fed also must undo the inverted Treasury yield curve whereby the 4.5% Fed Funds rate remains well above the 4% 10-year Treasury rate. This situation has prevailed for 18 ...
The Fed’s Undeserved and Unnecessary Attention
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »A lot of attention is paid to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, especially its ability to frequently change its target for short-term (overnight) rates, the "Federal Funds Rate." As the chart above shows (click to enlarge), the target rate for the ...
1.Repeal Humphrey-Hawkins, 2.Establish Price Rule
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »From today's WSJ editorial, a 2-step plan to improve monetary policy and avoid monetary-induced cycles of booms and busts in the housing and financial sectors. Step 1. Repeal the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978. Also known as ...
Good News: Mortgage Rates Remain Low and Stable
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »The housing market woes have received a lot of attention lately, but the graph above (click to enlarge) suggests that it could be a lot worse if interest rates weren't so low and stable. Mortgage rates today at 6.52% ...
A Policy Unblemished By Success: Price Controls
Monday, May 17th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »Quotes of the Day: 1. With the command-and-control propensity of contemporary liberalism, Clinton predictably advocates a policy that has a record, running from Roman times to the present, that is unblemished by success. It is the policy of price controls: Her ...
Housing Affordabilty Remains High in April
Saturday, May 15th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »The National Association of Realtors released its latest report today on the Housing Affordability Index (HAI) for April, showing a slight decline to 129.4 from the March level of 130 (see chart above) due to a slight increase in ...
Greenspan’s First Interview Tonight on 60 Minutes
Saturday, May 15th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »(CBS) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admits he "didn't really get it" that the subprime lending trend was significant enough to hurt the economy until very late 2005, but still defends his lowering of interest rates from ...
