QRM – Kicking the market when it is down?

From HousingWire:

Risk retention will produce higher quality mortgages, depress housing: S&P

The new risk-retention rule will produce higher quality originations, as intended, but will also constrict lending and further depress the housing market, according to Standard & Poor’s.

The research firm released a report Friday analyzing the effects of the risk-retention rule and its accompanying exemption standard, the qualified residential mortgage.

Federal agencies are proposing banks keep “skin in the game” — retaining 5% of the risk for all loans that don’t qualify as a QRM. A qualified residential mortgage is one with a maximum 80% loan to value, on a property that is owner-occupied and has a 30-year amortization period with full documentation. A borrower must have a track record clear of 60-day delinquencies. This excludes interest-only loans and loans with premium penalties.

Lawmakers recently voted in favor of a 20% down payment in addition to the tighter underwriting standards.

“We believe these proposed underwriting standards will likely reduce the amount of available residential mortgages and push back the recovery of the nonagency RMBS market,” said Erkan Erturk, research analyst with S&P. “Fewer borrowers will meet these underwriting standards, which will reduce demand for housing and depress home prices even further.”

Erturk has little doubt, however, that the proposed underwriting guidelines will improve future credit performance of loans that are securitized and will have a positive impact in the long-term.

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105 Responses to QRM – Kicking the market when it is down?

  1. Mike says:

    Good Morning New Jersey

  2. grim says:

    From the WSJ:

    N.J. Job Seekers Send Unemployment Rate Up

    New Jersey’s economy added 4,600 jobs in March while the state’s unemployment rate increased to 9.3%, according to new data released Thursday.

    The state saw job growth in both the public and private sectors last month, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Thursday. The results are often updated in the following months when more data comes in.

    New Jersey’s unemployment rate increased to 9.3% as more people started looking for work again, the labor department said. The unemployment rate is calculated using the number of people who say they are actively looking for work compared with the total workforce.

    In March, there were 417,200 New Jerseyans looking for work, an increase of 3,000 from February. Meanwhile, there were close to 4.5 million people in the state’s workforce, a one-month increase of 12,400.

    Gov. Chris Christie has pointed to the unemployment rate as evidence that his economic policies are working. At his frequent town-hall events around the state, he says that the unemployment rate has dropped about a point since he took office. The unemployment rate was 9.8% in January 2010, and it fell to 9.1% in December 2010.

    Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research with accounting firm J.H. Cohn, called it a “positive but disappointing report.”

    “If we continue to add jobs as we did this past month, it will take us more than four years to get back to where our employment level was at the beginning of the recession,” he said. “It’s disappointing as well because it doesn’t appear that we’re gaining traction. This has been a very stutterstep recovery. We had two months down now. We have two months up.”

    But Joseph Seneca, a professor of economics and public policy at Rutgers University, was more upbeat. He said it was “encouraging to see that the improvements in the national labor market are now being confirmed in New Jersey,” and there was a “solid increase” of 8,900 jobs in professional and business services since January.

  3. Dissident HEHEHE says:

    “New Jersey’s unemployment rate increased to 9.3% as more people started looking for work again”

    Undoubtedly because they want to take part in the Spring selling season.

  4. freedy says:

    nj manufacturing on the upswing? are these people crazy? only thing you see in
    NJ thats new: bank,subway,cvs,wallgreens,a new pizza joint,etc

  5. grim says:

    Angry drivers at the pumps this morning

  6. gary says:

    freedy [5],

    I agree!

  7. freedy says:

    i went thru w.ny fairview cliffside park, yesterday. signs in spanish , soccer field is
    like a moon scap, and its like a foreign country. food stamps, s8,housing ,etc.
    we are falling fast , as a country. They gave it away

  8. freedy says:

    drove thru fairview,wny,cliffside park yesterday. its like a foreign country.
    nothing left in those towns except to take down the english signs, put them up
    in spanish. they gave the country away

  9. jamil says:

    tax day!

    “For the first time since the Great Depression, households are receiving more income from the government than they are paying the government in taxes. The combination of more cash from various programs, called transfer payments, and lower taxes has been a double-barreled boost to consumers’ buying power, while also blowing a hole in the deficit. The 1930s offer a cautionary tale: The only other time government income support exceeded taxes paid was from 1931 to 1936. That trend reversed in 1936, after a recovery was underway, and the economy fell back into a second leg of recession during 1937 and 1938.”

    The primary job of the government is to redistribute money, after all.

  10. yo'me says:

    For tax year 2010, roughly 45% of households, or about 69 million, will end up owing nothing in federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Some in that group will even end up getting paid money from the federal government
    Contrary to what many assume, membership in the group isn’t restricted to the poor.

    It’s true that the vast majority of the 69 million households make less than $50,000 — with very heavy representation among households making less than $30,000.

    But nearly 5 million households in the group make somewhere between $50,000 and more than $1 million.

    Very high-income households can fall into the non-payer group if they get their income from tax-exempt bonds or overseas sources for which they get foreign tax credits, according to Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.
    If most tax breaks were removed, the Tax Policy Center estimates, the percentage of households with no federal income tax liability would drop to 27% from 45%.

    Since the hundreds of tax breaks on the books reduce federal revenue by an estimated $1.1 trillion every year, the debt panel suggested eliminating most if not all of the credits, deductions and personal exemptions, and use the newfound revenue to do two things: pay for lower income tax rates and help reduce deficits.

    Generating bipartisan support for tax reform is easy. But getting to “yes” on the details and figuring out who should pay more, less or nothing at all will be a much tougher fight.

    But it’s a fight lawmakers are gearing up to have

    http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/pf/taxes/who_pays_income_taxes/index.htm

  11. Barbara Corcoran says:

    ….and so i see this ‘circle jerk of pessimistic malcontents’ is off to another sunny week.

    why bring highlight the positive, like “Businesses leased more warehouses and distribution centers in North Jersey in the first quarter than they did a year ago, according to recent data from the commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield” when you can engross yourself in negativity?

    http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/120045424_Warehouse_leasing_on_the_upswing.html

    one day you might ‘get it’. you are the company you keep. you have no chance of positive things happening for you immersing yourself in this diatribe of the negative.

    after most of your statements you should say, “no shit…but what am i going to do about it”? A) Contribute more to the negativity of hit piss hole of a blog, or B) Get my ass up and around positive people, people that move forward, people that are optimistic.

    What a sack of loser shit this place is. I am a a first generation American and the reason people from Asia are basically taking over the “ownership class”, buying the best houses in the best communities? We’re not like you pathetic Americans. We don’t sit in a circle and piss on the situation, we do something about it and ourselves.

    Your forefathers were strong. You? The current crop of Americans are not worth the 2-ply toilet paper you wipe your pathetic asses with. Remember, as your rant here and engross in the negative, a person from Asia, could be India, could be China, could be Taiwan is doing something positive and getting ahead of your lousy asses.

  12. yo'me says:

    #9 from yesterday

    We got $1T in 10 years on the Bush tax cut to start with,$5T more to go without cutting benefits for the elderly and poor.
    If half are not paying taxes after deductions,millionaires and companies using the tax code loopholes,eliminating tax deductions for companies and individual tax payers,and letting the Bush tax cuts,how long will it take to cut the deficit by $5T?

  13. Barbara Corcoran says:

    Oh, I forgot, I need a housekeeper and someone to do our yard. Would prefer to hire a husband and wife team, let me know if you would like a job! Thanks!

  14. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    Hey babs, your batteries run low again.

  15. ditto says:

    “Would prefer to hire a husband and wife team”

    Are you insane?

  16. gary says:

    We’re not like you pathetic Americans.

    Yet, you came here… to America. I have no further questions your honor.

  17. J says:

    Thanks for the positive thoughts Barbara

  18. 3b says:

    #10 Palisades Park????

  19. Barbara Corcoran says:

    15 – Gary

    We came here to America for the “easy pickens”. The low fruit. The weak and light weight competition. My kids rank in the top 1% here in America and they speak half ass English. Back home they are midlevel students. We came here to take the wealth.

  20. hughesrep says:

    18

    Opened a rub and tug place?

  21. grim says:

    Yawn, yet you post with a fake email address.

    Donald part 2

  22. make money says:

    $1 Billion of Gold Bars Taken Delivery Of By Pension Fund Due to Risk of COMEX Default and Shortages

    Albani, JJ,

    Don’t know much about things but this can’t bearish on my perth holdings down under. Pension fund??

  23. JJ says:

    S&P affirms AAA rating on US debt; revises rating to negative. Futures down sharply in response.

    Huge sell off at open, lots of sell orders flooding in. Too late to do anything but watch.

  24. chicagofinance says:

    Ben says:
    April 17, 2011 at 11:35 pm
    Melo has always been overrated. He’s a ballhog with a mediocre field go percentage.

    I’ve always liked the “old school” term…chucker…

    I’ve been burned out on the Knicks the same way clot is on the Mets. I care, but not like I should…..didn’t watch a minute of the game….it is sad day for me.

  25. chicagofinance says:

    albani: I got all this inside shit on Berisha from my friend who is a connected lawyer in Tirana…..OMG what a clusterfcuk over there….

  26. chicagofinance says:

    Barbara Corcoran = RE101 = Oradell/River Edge poster = ??? :)

  27. chicagofinance says:

    Actually drove through the NJTP corridor from Exit 8 to 7 yesterday…absolute traffic mess, but for NJ a great economic opportunity……FINALLY some federal money being given back to us instead of being dole out to welfare red states. Tons of activity, and it is the warehouse and trucking capital of the entire east coast…..righteous…..

    Barbara Corcoran says:
    April 18, 2011 at 8:43 am
    ….and so i see this ‘circle jerk of pessimistic malcontents’ is off to another sunny week.

    why bring highlight the positive, like “Businesses leased more warehouses and distribution centers in North Jersey in the first quarter than they did a year ago, according to recent data from the commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield” when you can engross yourself in negativity?

  28. chicagofinance says:

    sorry…..the federal money is funding the massive addition to the toll road…

  29. Confused In NJ says:

    22.JJ says:
    April 18, 2011 at 9:17 am
    S&P affirms AAA rating on US debt; revises rating to negative. Futures down sharply in response.

    Huge sell off at open, lots of sell orders flooding in. Too late to do anything but watch

    Ben will use his printing press to compensate.

  30. JJ says:

    Do you just make things up? No PPT in house today. I know when they are around. If anything it is a good chance to blow off some froth off DJIA massive rise.

    Confused In NJ says:
    April 18, 2011 at 9:33 am

    22.JJ says:
    April 18, 2011 at 9:17 am
    S&P affirms AAA rating on US debt; revises rating to negative. Futures down sharply in response.

    Huge sell off at open, lots of sell orders flooding in. Too late to do anything but watch

    Ben will use his printing press to compensate.

  31. Juice X says:

    Turbo Timmay talk show rounds just aren’t believable. Time to change it up Obama.

  32. Juice X says:

    S&P’s credit analyst is named Nikola G. Swann

    Swann? Is he Black or White?

  33. 3b says:

    #25 And In The Know??

  34. Confused In NJ says:

    29.JJ says:
    April 18, 2011 at 9:38 am
    Do you just make things up? No PPT in house today. I know when they are around. If anything it is a good chance to blow off some froth off DJIA massive rise.

    No, but Ben & Timmy do.

  35. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    Hey, if you want to shut Barbara up, raise your game.

    Our kids will have their lunch eaten by the Asians if we let the leeches continue to bleed the public fisc for themselves.

    But I think we are past the tipping point. The mindset is solidified. At this point, I can only try to shelter my kids (and hopefully future generations of mine) from the coming shitstorm.

    Now, excuse me whilst I trot my forced exaction of leech food off to the posties.

  36. Topper says:

    Wonderful board and core panelists! So I’m contemplating putting in an all cash offer for $700K-$750K for this REO. Am I low balling a bit too much to be considered by the bank? Should I chase it all the to the current list ($1MM)? Not that it matters but it was once listed in the $2MM range a couple of years ago or so from what I heard. I don’t have a realtor so the listing agent gets the full commission…which may get my offer a little extra “push” from the agent. What say you? Am I thinking this right or wait another couple years? Any thoughts, suggestions, or recommendations much appreciated.

    http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1113903&dayssince=7&countysearch=false

  37. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    [97] [prior thread] cobbler

    “With the worldview you’ve got, what is the point of putting the money into an IRA?”

    Ah, but now you are getting into the realm of true, aggressive, tax planning. Like the peep shows of old, if you want to see more, you have to put some coin in the slot.

  38. make money says:

    top[35],

    At 750K…its a buy!!!

  39. Juice X says:

    re # 35 – Just short of being in Alpine too bad, was 2 million + now 900k?
    34k in taxes is the issue with the place 1.4% assessed value and Alpine is 1.0%.
    FYI the vacancies in Alpine in that neighborhood are quite high and you might have to put up with a Kardashian as a neighbor. Good luck getting it reassessed.

  40. Confused In NJ says:

    Truvada costs $5,000 to $14,000 a year in the United States, but as little as $140 a year in some poor countries where it’s available in generic form.

  41. JJ says:

    Re 35, well Hudson City owns REO and they made a boatload of bad jumbo loans. Here is price history. I would bid low and see what happens.

    10/19/05 $1.00 ROZENVASSER, DAVID
    10/12/01 $1,230,000.00 ROZENVASSER, DAVID & AVI
    4/29/99 $1,150,000.00 AMATO, MARY LOU & JOSEPH
    7/2/98 $375,000.00 KDC DEVELOPMENT, INC.
    6/1/93 $300,000.00 SISCA,MARY JANE & CATHERINE

    Also 130 Rio Vista DrNorwood, NJ 07648 Recently Sold: $1,250,000 in a non-reo transaction in 11/2010

  42. Topper says:

    Thank you all! Think the bank will go for $700K offer? What is the typical haircut for “list” vs “actual” for REOs/shorts? I realize there are certain variables that are specific to a property but…just on average? Would anyone know what Hudson is in for (balance) on the loan? Suggestions on a good starting cash bid?

  43. Shore Guy says:

    Stockman on the Fed:

    Federal Reserve’s path of destruction
    Commentary: Crony capitalism continues

    GREENWICH, Conn. (MarketWatch) — The destructive result of the Federal Reserve’s earlier housing and consumer credit bubble became the excuse for embracing a destructive zero interest rate policy which is self-evidently fueling even more destruction.

    This destruction is namely, the exploitation of middle class savers; the current severe food and energy squeeze on lower income households; the illusion in Washington that Uncle Sam can comfortably manage $14 trillion in debt because the interest carry is close enough to zero for government purposes; and the next round of bursting bubbles building up among the risk asset classes.

    Moreover, the Fed soldiers on with its serial bubble-making, even though it is evident that the hallowed doctrines of modern monetary theory and the inherently dubious math of Taylor rules have failed completely.

    Indeed, the evidence that the Fed no longer has any clue about the transmission pathways which connect the base money it is emitting with reckless abandon (e.g. Federal Reserve credit) to the millions of everyday pricing, hiring, investing and financing outcomes on Main Street sits right on its own balance sheet. Specifically, if the Fed actually knew how to thread the needle to the real economy with printing press money it wouldn’t have needed to manufacture $1 trillion in excess bank reserves — indolent entries on its own books for which it is now paying interest.

    snip

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/federal-reserves-path-of-destruction-2011-04-13?reflink=MW_news_stmp

  44. Juice X says:

    re # 42- Topper Google is your friend. Judgment: $1,249,083.18 and could be more with a HELOC.

    Recent comps would be thin to say the least, since there is little activity and lots of empty McManshions up there in those Bergen County Hills.

    Banks are just beginning to take it in the chin on these high end REOs. We aren’t at the auction phase yet for these marvelous McMansions with a tax bills that would choke a horse, and for the really bad new the shadow inventory (pre-forclosures) is somewhere around 10 + years.

    We have lots more pain coming, but if you want it I would recommend taking the red pill first.

  45. JJ says:

    RE taxes are $34,872.05 on that REO

  46. Shore Guy says:

    From Stockman piece:

    So in the present circumstances, ZIRP and QE2 amount to a monetary Hail Mary. There is no monetary tradition whatsoever that says the way back to U.S. economic health and sustainable growth is through herding Grandma into junk bonds and speculators into the Russell 2000 .

    snip

    That chairman Bernanke himself has explained in so many words this miracle of speculative GDP levitation, however, does not make it so. The fact is, if transitory wealth effects add to current consumer spending, snip

    In truth, the Fed’s current money printing spree has no analytical foundation, and amounts to seat-of-the-pants pursuit of a will-o’-wisp — the idea of a perpetual bull market. Like the Bank of Japan, the Fed has made itself hostage to the global speculative classes, and must repeatedly inject new forms of stimulus to keep the bubbles rising.

    snip

  47. Shore Guy says:

    Flat tax and no deductions, and fund SS and Medicare from income tax not payroll tax. Lets let people SEE what government costs. Too much is hidden right now.

  48. Sterling Grey Matters says:

    Welcome back to the Shark Tank!

    The Sharks are currently evaluating an REO property located in Norwood, NJ which is deeply discounted to just under $1MM. The only Shark remaining is Barbara C.

    Barbara: Can you tell me what the assessed value and current taxes are on this property?

    Seller: We recently made an appeal to the town assessor and we successfully had the assessed value reduced by about 20%.

    Barbara: That’s wonderful. Now can you tell me what the current taxes are?

    Seller: Only $36,325.

    Barbara: That’s the new taxes based on the new assessment.

    Seller: Yes.

    Barbara: What were the taxes before?

    Seller: $34,872.

    Barbara: The taxes are higher after the assessment!?! I think I might be out. That fruit isn’t low enough for me, even if I’m reaching up while being held by my children as they step on the necks of their inferior classmates assembled in a pile beneath them. Unless…

    Seller: Unless what?

    Barbara: Do you think I could get it for $729,750, and you would pay for the closing costs? Then I could finance with FHA for about $25,550 down and maybe ride the market back up or, if things don’t work out, just end in default. Do we have a deal?

    Seller: But I owe about $500,000+ to the bank if I sell at that price.

    Barbara: That’s your problem. You wouldn’t be here if you had any other options.

    Seller: (reluctantly) Okay, yes, we have a deal.

  49. Shore Guy says:

    Then the alarm clock rings?

  50. JJ says:

    Barbara, bend over while I think about it.

  51. make money says:

    Then the alarm clock rings?

    Shore,

    Probably waking up to barking pitbulls or stripers singing/chatting as they coming back from work.

  52. Happy Renter says:

    [10] “I am a a first generation American and the reason people from Asia are basically taking over the ‘ownership class’, buying the best houses in the best communities?”

    An Asian named Barbara Corcoran. Cute.

    Come on, Babs, it was so much more fun when I thought you were real. Why’d you have to go and get all Tiger Mom on me?

    But thanks for posting that “positive” news article. Great to know that people in NJ can “warehouse” and “distribute” more useless crap.

  53. 30 year realtor says:

    Topper #35 – The house was listed 4/12/11 @ $1,100,000 and reduced to $999,900 the same day. Likely due to a conversation between the listing agent and Asset Manager, the decision was made to have a 6 figure asking price. I would be very happy to have this listing at this ask!!! Property is priced marginally above inferior recent sales. STRONGLY EXPECT BANK TO PLAY VERY TIGHT for the first 30 days and do not believe they will be forced to capitulate. If you can get this at $950 or less it represents a decent value at this moment in time, under $900 is a steal.

    Looking forward, I would expect this home to continue to depreciate. Fewer buyers will be able to afford or desire to heat, light and pay the taxes on this white elephant and others like it. Could likely go down another 15 to 20% over a long, dragged out period of time.

  54. jamil says:

    Gallup: “Half of Americans believe the amount they pay in federal income taxes is too high, while 43% consider it about right and 4% too low.”

    Bloomberg news: “More than 45 percent of U.S. households won’t owe federal income taxes for 2010.”

  55. sas3 says:

    JJ #50…
    Don’t be too eager. Barbara C is probably one of the regulars in drag.

  56. yo'me says:

    Gallup: “Half of Americans believe the amount they pay in federal income taxes is too high, while 43% consider it about right and 4% too low.”

    It could be worst

    Federal Income Tax History Income years 1913-2011
    http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/fed_individual_rate_history-20110323.swf
    http://www.taxfoundation.org

  57. JJ says:

    I always like at least one Asian family on my block. No more pigeon, stray cats or mice problems once they move in.

    Happy Renter says:
    April 18, 2011 at 12:15 pm

    [10] “I am a a first generation American and the reason people from Asia are basically taking over the ‘ownership class’, buying the best houses in the best communities?”

    An Asian named Barbara Corcoran. Cute.

    Come on, Babs, it was so much more fun when I thought you were real. Why’d you have to go and get all Tiger Mom on me?

    But thanks for posting that “positive” news article. Great to know that people in NJ can “warehouse” and “distribute” more useless crap.

  58. A.West says:

    Does Babs spring from the same mind as RE101?

  59. A.West says:

    On the $36,000 annual property taxes of the REO. Assuming they grow at the 2% cap into perpetuity, discounted at 5%, these property taxes have a present value of about $1.2mn. The price of the house is only of secondary financial importance relative to the rent (tax) you pay to the town.

  60. A.West says:

    I wonder how town governments will respond when taxes make most of their residences uninhabitable, sparking a mass-exodus. Will they try to cut deals with people, offering breaks for people willing to move into town?

  61. chi (23)-

    Melo played like crap. He’s a turnover machine…and, doesn’t play a lick of defense.

    Just a cry-ass, fugazy, Tim Thomas byatch.

  62. kettle1^2 says:

    Debt,

    you pointed this out months ago if not years ago

    Guest Post: Fed Aims At Mortgage Fraud, Shoots Housing Market In The Gut

    Since most of us only deal with mortgage loan origination fees when we buy a home or refinance a mortgage, the average citizen will have a tough time sorting out the often-arcane issues at stake. But the bottom line is straightforward: the already-limited mortgage market is about to become more limited, as small mortgage brokers are being shoved out of business. Call it “unintended consequences” or a cloaked plan to channel more of the mortgage business to the “too big to fail” big banks, but regardless of the motivations, the rules end up limiting consumer choice and making it harder for home buyers to get a loan. That’s bad for housing in two ways: limited competition drives costs up, and marginal buyers will find nobody wants their business because it’s simply not worth the compensation allowed by the Fed’s new rules.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-fed-aims-mortgage-fraud-shoots-housing-market-gut

  63. plume (34)-

    I say if these immigrants want what’s left of our Third World shambles, let them have it. Any of us who are self-employed or small business proprietors have either busted out or been virtually turned into slaves already.

    Any of these self-proclaimed conquerors want my building and my business, I’ll sign a quitclaim deed right now and walk away.

  64. jj (41)-

    Hudson City is a bitch to deal with on short sales/REO. If it’s a short sale, they will choose to foreclose unless they can recover 100% of the outstanding balance. One they own a property REO, they overprice it and dig in their heels.

  65. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    So what was the WH response to the S+P announcement?

    “The White House strategy:

    1) Pan S&P.

    “I don’t think that we should make too much out of that,” top White House economist Austan Goolsbee said on MSNBC, referring to the S&P downgrade.

    “What the S&P is doing is making a political judgment and it is one that we don’t agree with,” he said on CNBC.

    2) Praise Moody’s.

    The rival ratings agency said it viewed the direction of U.S. fiscal policy as “credit positive.”

    “It appears to me that Moody’s and some others did not agree with that judgment,” Goolsbee said.

    3) Express optimism.

    White House and U.S. Treasury officials said they believed lawmakers would be able to come up with an agreement to reduce the U.S. deficit. S&P’s skepticism of that influenced its decision on the downgrade.

    “We think that there has never been more momentum to try to get to fiscal consolidation, so we think that we should give that process its due,” a Treasury official said.

    4) Buy time.

    Obama administration officials said it would take some time to get a solution, and S&P should have waited to allow that to happen.

    “I think their timing is off,” the Treasury official said.

    “I think they should allow the process to work its course here. We have got a lot going on between the White House, Congress, the fiscal commission. I think there are some very serious proposals on the table so I think they should take some time to see what happens.”

    In other news, Chris Matthews and Rev. Al Sharpton lambaste S+P for racism, and Eric Holder announces an investigation into civil rights violations by ratings agencies.

    Meanwhile, gold nears $1500, silver takes a wild ride, and big institutions are taking physical delivery.

    Goolsbee reminds me of an early Kevin Bacon in “Animal House” yelling “Remain calm, all is well.”

    Hope and change.

  66. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    [66] freedy,

    Not only does the Chosen One have a lower effective tax rate than yours truly, he is not taxed on so many perks of the position that the rest of us are taxed upon. Admittedly, many are for the “convenience of the employer” but not all.

  67. shore (46)-

    Everything Stockman said pretty much applies to junkies, too.

  68. Al Mossberg says:

    Im trying to think of something really negative and pessimistic to type but I cant since I am emotionally attached to the doom. God I love it. S&P downgrade is doomish enough for the day. Let me know when another radioactive cloud shows up.

  69. vodka (62)-

    The new guidelines might as well have been literally written by Jamie Dimon. The real intent is to drive correspondents and brokers out of the business. I first commented on this when the banks started putting the squeeze on their correspondents four years ago (maybe some computer genius here can regurgitate my original post, probably 2007-vintage), and now they’ve engaged the gubmint to put on a new squeeze from the legal/regulatory end. The net final effect will be that the entire US mortgage market will soon be controlled by and channelled through 4-5 banks.

    One of the only things Daddy Warbucks (Paulson) ever said that didn’t sound like a PCP hallucination was that a new way forward for the mortgage market in the US would be to wean itself from the securitization model and move toward one backstopped by a covered bond system (much as in Scandinavia). In that way, banks are forced to put skin in the game, but the big boys couldn’t squeeze out brokers and correspondents.

    Naturally, Paulson’s masters popped his chain after he let that idea fly, and the whole idea dropped from sight after about three days of media play.

  70. plume (67)-

    Dear Mr. Goolsbee,

    What did you call it when it was discovered that S&P stamped “AAA” on giant, festering turd piles?

    ———————————————————————————————

    “I don’t think that we should make too much out of that,” top White House economist Austan Goolsbee said on MSNBC, referring to the S&P downgrade.

    “What the S&P is doing is making a political judgment and it is one that we don’t agree with,” he said on CNBC.

  71. Even if S&P is making a political judgment, it is legitimate for them to do so, as both Dumbocrats and Rethuglicans alike have demonstrated absolutely no ability, desire or external motivation to do anything to stop the buggering of our currency and the longest daylight bank robbery in the history of man.

  72. Then again, S&P is like the financial, corporate version of a grifter like Frank Abignale, who gets caught in larceny and deception, then pronounces himself “rehabilitated” and goes to work for the putative good guys.

    Never forget that S&P taught the banksters how to turn crap into gold.

  73. sas3 says:

    Al #70,

    Today’s dip gives a 1.5 to 2% discount for last minute retirement money going into index funds!

    S

  74. Essex says:

    Got my realtor coming on Friday! Got the wife to agree. Thanks to the AMT we don’t get squat off of mortgage deductions. Ready to dump the home. Rent for a while. Then hit the apls by 2014.

  75. Juice X says:

    re # 73 – new no fly zone over Water Street and perhaps W 49th Street.

  76. spyderjacks says:

    Regarding #60, and the “mass exodus”.

    How can you have a mass exodus, if you can’t sell? And if you manage to sell, how does the buyer suddenly turn around and exit? Are you asserting that those who ‘Exit’ will be doing so via foreclosure? Walk away?

    I think the only way that municipalities would lower taxes is when the tax liens exceed the value of the foreclosed properties. Their cash flow may take a hit but that’s about it. And not to exclude real reductions in the operating budget (we can dream!) – but we still have a long way to slide before half the community ‘walks away’ and takes the total loss. At that point, everybody loses – when the power and water go out. That’s the stuff for a movie project, not an enconomic forecast and strategy.

    A.West says:
    April 18, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    I wonder how town governments will respond when taxes make most of their residences uninhabitable, sparking a mass-exodus. Will they try to cut deals with people, offering breaks for people willing to move into town?

  77. Juice X says:

    Not hearing too much in the MSM about this US Senate report.

    Warning 650 pages long.

    WALL STREET AND
    THE FINANCIAL CRISIS:
    Anatomy of a Financial Collapse

    United States Senate
    PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS
    Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
    Carl Levin, Chairman
    Tom Coburn, Ranking Minority Member

    http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/Financial_Crisis/FinancialCrisisReport.pdf

  78. Juice X says:

    re: #79

    Senator Carl Levin’s conclusion from his NY Times interview.

    ”The overwhelming evidence,” added Levin, the subcommittee’s chairman, “is that those institutions deceived their clients and … the public, and were aided and abetted by deferential regulators and credit ratings agencies [that] had conflicts of interest.”

  79. Simply Ravishing HEHEHE says:

    “Melo played like crap. He’s a turnover machine…and, doesn’t play a lick of defense”

    Melo chucks a three with about forty seconds left that rims out and the announcer says “Melo really thought that one went in as he was slow getting back on defense”. I couldn’t stop laughing. Like it mattered if he thought it went in? He’s always slow getting back on defense. Whether he thought it was going in or not had nothing to do with him being lazy. The only time he plays defense is when he doesn’t have to move to play defense. The guy is a bum. He’s a modern day Mark Aguirre.

  80. Juice X says:

    More Doom.

    An unconfirmed tornado landed outside the Surry Nuclear Plant in Virginia on Saturday and automatically shutdown the site’s two reactors, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

    The apparent tornado affected an electrical switchyard next to the plant, cutting off the electrical feed to the station, in Surry County, about 17 miles northwest of Newport News.

    Both reactors shut down automatically at about 7 p.m. and backup diesel generators kept power going.

    Plant operators have partially restored offsite power to both plants, said owner Dominion Virginia Power.

    The radioactive material release is below federally approved limits and poses no threat to station workers or the public, the NRC said.

    The power company notified the NRC of the situation soon after it happened, and the agency dispatched its resident inspectors to the plant and staffed its incident response center in Atlanta, officials said.

    The power company reported no injuries and said its also notified state and local officials.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/18/saturday-storm-cut-offsite-power-va-nuclear-reacto/

  81. Barbara says:

    60. A West

    “I wonder how town governments will respond when taxes make most of their residences uninhabitable, sparking a mass-exodus. Will they try to cut deals with people, offering breaks for people willing to move into town?”

    Its already happening in East Brunswick. Sprawling mansions have gone vacant and have sat for the last three years, over grown.

  82. Barbara says:

    spyderjacks, its not the ticky tacky neighborhood of split levels who pay 12k in prop taxes who are leaving, its the huge tracts at 30k + per year a clip that are leaving. That’s gonna hurt.

  83. babs (84)-

    No one will be spared.

    Even after the Gottendammerung, there will still be the Knicks and Mets to torture us.

  84. Barbara says:

    Phillies fan here. I Love NY but can’t get with their teams.

  85. All over, but the crying:

    “A quick look at today’s just released total debt to the penny from the Treasury may crimp the artificial smile of even such die hard administration sycophants as Moodys. Why: because the total debt, as we predicted when we observed last week’s 30 Year auction, is now at $14,305,336,580,992.11. This is a problem because as anyone who rails against the broken US fiscal apparatus should be able to tell you, the debt ceiling is $14.294 trillion. In other words we have now officially breached the debt ceiling by $11 billion. So why has the US not filed a notice of default yet? Because the actual debt that matters for legal purposes is the debt “subject to the limit”, which is $52 billion less than the total debt primarily due to $10 billion held at the Federal Financing Bank, and $41 billion in unamortized discount: a number which fluctuates in time depending on how much over or under par bonds are issued, but which ultimately will be zero at maturity of all debt (haha). In other words, as of today, the US Treasury has dry powder for just another $41 billion in issuance, or just over your average 5 Year auction. This can be seen best on the following chart from the Treasury where the total debt line has just passed the limit.”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/article/total-us-debt-now-officially-above-ceiling

  86. Hey, Moose- waddya got to say about that serial deadbeat, Morgan Stanley?

    My guess would be: not much. MS could be one of Moose’s overlords.

    “A Morgan Stanley property fund failed to make $3.3 billion in debt payments by a deadline on Friday, handing over the keys to a central Tokyo office building to Blackstone (BX.N) and other investors, the largest repayment failure of its kind in Japan.

    It marks the latest fallout from a series of highly leveraged investments by Morgan Stanley (MS.N), one of the most aggressive investors in worldwide property markets before the global financial crisis.

    The $4.2 billion MSREF V real estate fund missed its April 15 deadline to repay 278 billion yen($3.3 billion) worth of debt packaged in commercial mortgage-backed securities on the 32-storey Shinagawa Grand Central Tower, a property which has seen its value plunge, two people involved in the transaction said.”

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/15/us-morgan-stanley-real-estate-idUSTRE73E63E20110415

  87. relo says:

    88: Sayonra.

  88. relo says:

    or Sayonara. Yeah, 220…221 whatever it takes.

  89. Today’s Ipecac substitute:

    “And for the most unsurprising news of the day, Reuters reports that the White House has admitted it knew about the S&P rating action on Friday. Which means that all the key bond buyers (or sellers are the case may be, Pimco), knew at roughly the same time what the key market catalyst on Monday would be (we can’t wait to get a declassified glimpse of Larry Meyer’s phone log over the weekend one day in the future). Which also means that today’s action was a strawman in which the big boys merely waited for an opportunity to buy bonds are lower prices, which the ongoing European collapse merely facilitated. Most importantly, it is now all too clear why over the weekend, Tim Geithner’s face, instead of being hard at work at finalizing his tax filing, would grace each and every TV screen. Advance damage control, TurboTax style.”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/article/reason-geithners-weekend-media-whirlwind-tour-white-house-learned-about-sp-downgrade-friday

  90. Mikeinwaiting says:

    Relo, classic. “Yeah, 220…221 whatever it takes.”

  91. Outofstater says:

    Another foreclosure in our neighborhood. That makes three so far. The first two have sold and I guess we were lucky in that they each had property mgmt companies looking after them, cutting the grass, picking up flyers, etc, til they sold. No one has moved in yet but one of the houses has had a new roof put on and lots of other repairs made. I hope that’s a good sign.

  92. Confused In NJ says:

    91.Debt Supernova says:
    April 18, 2011 at 6:01 pm
    Today’s Ipecac substitute:

    “And for the most unsurprising news of the day, Reuters reports that the White House has admitted it knew about the S&P rating action on Friday. Which means that all the key bond buyers (or sellers are the case may be, Pimco), knew at roughly the same time what the key market catalyst on Monday would be (we can’t wait to get a declassified glimpse of Larry Meyer’s phone log over the weekend one day in the future). Which also means that today’s action was a strawman in which the big boys merely waited for an opportunity to buy bonds are lower prices, which the ongoing European collapse merely facilitated. Most importantly, it is now all too clear why over the weekend, Tim Geithner’s face, instead of being hard at work at finalizing his tax filing, would grace each and every TV screen. Advance damage control, TurboTax style.”

    Didn’t Martha Stewart go to prison for insider information?

  93. nj escapee says:

    Big U.S. Firms Shift Hiring Abroad

    BY DAVID WESSEL
    U.S. multinational corporations, the big brand-name companies that employ a fifth of all American workers, have been hiring abroad while cutting back at home, sharpening the debate over globalization’s effect on the U.S. economy.

    The companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show. That’s a big switch from the 1990s, when they added jobs everywhere: 4.4 million in the U.S. and 2.7 million abroad.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704821704576270783611823972.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

  94. Anon E. Moose says:

    Debt [88];

    Are you saying that James P. Gorman is squatting in a Tokyo office building? Perhaps you missed the part of the article about MS “handing over the keys”; you know, the lead sentence? I thought I’ve been clear about my contempt for the deadbeat squatting in houses they could never have hoped to afford for three years and counting after default.

  95. When confronted with corporate deadbeats, the bankster toady splits hairs.

    Please tell us again what you do for a living, Moose.

    Oh…that’s right…you don’t have the cojones to disclose, since that would also out the reason for your total self-involvement.

    Typical troll.

  96. Topper says:

    Well, many thanks to the wise advice posted regarding the REO by the many sages that are central to this forum. Although I did except some further commentary… perhaps even on the “comp killer” side that is often heard on this board. I was especially hoping to hear from the main characters – Grim, Clot, Libtard(s), Shore Guy, NDP, etc. (Sorry if I missed a few others.) So and thanks again to 30 yr; JJ (we can share stories!); Juicex, etc. for your valuable insight. This board is something quite special and has been part of my daily diet for several years. Stay well all!

  97. still_looking says:

    Topper,
    Lib is on vacay (I think), Debt Supernova *is* Clot, and there are others who’ve changed names that I’m not keen enough to discern.

    ie – BC/Wantan – what is your handle now??

    sl

  98. Young Buck says:

    I believe BC Bob is now the Lone Ranger

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