From CNBC:
Mortgage rates surge higher again, causing homebuyers to pull back
After a brief reprieve in December and January, mortgage rates are moving higher again, and that is taking its toll on mortgage demand.
Total mortgage application volume fell 2.3% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) increased to 6.87% last week from 6.80% the week before, with points rising to 0.65 from 0.59 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That is the highest rate since early December 2023.
Applications to refinance a home loan, which are most sensitive to weekly rate changes, fell 2% for the week but were 12% higher than the same week one year ago. Rates are still about one-half a percentage point higher now than they were a year ago, but the recent drop in rates from a 20-year high last fall has brought more borrowers out looking for any savings they can get. The vast majority of current borrowers, however, have loans with rates far lower than those available today.
Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home dropped 3% for the week and were 12% lower than the same week a year ago.
“Purchase applications remained subdued as elevated rates continue to add to affordability challenges along with still-low existing housing inventory,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist, in a release.
A recent report from Redfin showed an 8% drop in pending home sales over the last four weeks compared with the same period a year ago. These measure signed contracts on existing homes.
The rare foist..eat it
3b,
On MS layoffs, best of luck in this market. The wealth management has been under probe for anti-money-laundering failures. The lack of controls and blatant disregard for compliance is at all time high. Only after a cease or desist or major penalty do they even invest a dime in the area. We are going on 10 years of this non-sense. Compliance is now about getting caught over anything pro-active at all. My group got zero raises this year. Essentially my IB is saying we don’t care if work gets done and FINRA/SEC/OCC/FINMA/MAS get correct information. My boss and I discussed this and if they looked under the hood, it would be a complete sh&t show of band aid work and uncontrolled processes. No one cares.
Morgan Stanley’s wealth business serving foreign clients is under review by the Federal Reserve, The Wall Street Journal reported
The Fed has been scrutinizing the firm’s anti-money laundering controls and know-your-customer procedures, including how it determines the origin of a client or prospect’s wealth, the publication said. Fed officials have “privately reprimanded” Morgan Stanley for not making sufficient changes that it has asked for and has been working directly with Morgan Stanley Wealth head Andy Saperstein.
The Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline (also known as Trans-Siberian Pipeline) is one of Russia’s main natural gas export pipelines, partially owned and operated by Ukraine.
Soviet plans to build the pipeline were strongly opposed by the US-administration of Ronald Reagan. Americans were afraid that Western Europe would become dependent on the Soviet gas supplies, giving leverage to the Soviet Union.
In December 1981, the US implemented sanctions preventing American companies from exporting oil and gas technologies to the Soviet Union. In June 1982, these sanctions were expanded to cover subsidiaries of US companies in Europe.[14]
Washington’s Western European allies, however, refused to boycott the pipeline. The foreign ministers of the European Economic Community called extension of the American sanctions illegal and sent a formal note of protest. From the European perspective, participation in the pipeline project was seen as an opportunity for the depressed steel and engineering industry in Europe and as a way to diversify from the OPEC oil supplies. Western European governments insisted that contracts already signed between the Soviets and European companies needed to be honored. This led to several European companies being sanctioned by the US.
***Reagan reportedly said: “Well, they can have their damned pipeline.*** But not with American equipment and not with American technology. The efforts by the US to prevent the construction of the pipeline, and its export embargo of supplies needed to build it (1980–84), constituted one of the most severe transatlantic crises of the Cold War.
Funny how this name keeps coming up:
In 1987, Antony Blinken’s college thesis was published as his first book about that episode in Cold War history: Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis.
When then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son joined the board of an obscure Ukrainian gas company half a decade ago, it was a stunning coup for its owner, a former Ukrainian minister working to remake the company’s image as he faced a money-laundering investigation.
Hunter Biden became involved in Ukraine at a chaotic political moment for the former Soviet republic. In early 2014, an uprising on Kiev’s Independence Square, known as the maidan, ousted the Russia-leaning government of President Viktor Yanukovych and swept into power a group of Ukrainian politicians seeking closer relations with Europe and the United States.
For some Ukrainians, Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma undermined his father’s calls to end corruption in Ukraine. It also raised concerns that prosecutors would avoid pursuing alleged wrongdoing by Zlochevsky out of fear that the former minister had high-level connections in the United States — the critical backer of the Ukrainian government at the time.
Morgan Stanley’s wealth business serving foreign clients is under review by the Federal Reserve, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Smith Barney: We make money the old way, we earrrrrrn it.
Morgan Stanley. The old way sucks.
Seems America has been meddling in the ol’ Russian gas pipeline thing since Ronnie was President. Interfering in Russia/European affairs.
Then, once Europe and Russia agreed and built pipelines without America, Hunter Biden appears over there and suddenly their is a regime change and the pipelines no longer belong to Russia. The puppets now have strangled Russia.
Russia and Germany decide to build their own pipeline, trying to escape the control, corruption, and extortion America/ Ukraine has over them.
This meddling far from North America has been going on for a very, very, very long time.
No surprise that there is a war. It’s f’n payback time.
Good luck with your new roommates.
And good luck getting them to move out if they don’t want to.
https://nypost.com/2024/02/15/us-news/massachusetts-couple-volunteers-to-host-migrants-four-show-up-an-hour-later/
LAX: here you go….. the solos really rip…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zi2FJA6xGk
By,
I remember 2008? Under the hood? Cash for Clunkers program. I was working in a garage on the side. The dude next door ran a junkyard. He was taking the cars in and “destroying” the engines as the program called for from the Ford dealership. The dealership basically outsourced the destruction to him. Actually, all of those used cars were being driven to shipping container yard and sent out of the country. He probably made a few hundred thousand selling the cars and another hundred thousand in collecting those government subsidies.
“Morgan Stanley’s wealth business serving foreign clients is under review by the Federal Reserve, The Wall Street Journal reported“
Private banking for foreign clients requires minimum $5m or so. Not realistic to make that kind of dough legally in those foreign lands
Phoenix,
..and here is MS’s solution. Paying a 24 year girl who shares in 3 BD apt, hungover most days, hoping to find someone rich in WM who can take her away to Hamptons. She will identify these bad operators with their 1.5T wealth portfolio. The Fed will be okay with this solution after their “reprimanding”..wink
Anti-money Laundering Risk Negative News Screening Associate
Morgan Stanley
New York, NY
41K–63K a year
Full-time
– Execute processes and tasks supporting the Firm’s Centralized NNS program
– Coordinate reviews for negative news related to existing customers that pose a reputational risk to the Firm
– Perform in-depth reviews and investigations into complex matters
– Initiate communications with front office personnel
– Complete escalation reviews and documentation
– Assist in executing key projects and initiatives related to assessing and mitigating the Firm’s exposure to money laundering and reputational risk-relevant activities
– Assist in the escalation of non-financial and financial crime matters for Wealth Management, US Banks and ETRADE customers to Senior Management as well as a working group for review.
-ACAMS certification required
E-Trade integration. Obviously, whacking people, but also a lot of redundancy.
Bystander says:
February 15, 2024 at 8:16 am
3b,
On MS layoffs, best of luck in this market.
Real estate….. if my family can wade through the corruption, we probably can clear 10-20M euro. However, there is no institutional will to clear titles.
Very Stable Genius says:
February 15, 2024 at 9:26 am
“Morgan Stanley’s wealth business serving foreign clients is under review by the Federal Reserve, The Wall Street Journal reported“
Private banking for foreign clients requires minimum $5m or so. Not realistic to make that kind of dough legally in those foreign lands
“family” = extended family
Chgo: MS spent a long time integrating E-Trade.
BRT,
One of most ill-conceived programs of all time. Wish I could have scammed it myself. I truly appreciated first time home buyer’s credit program of 2009. I love looking at graph showing home prices falling in 2008, only to see a tick up for a few months in 2009 after announced. Obama really suckered them. “Wait, I have to pay it back?” Hilarious stupidity. Now, we just give it all for free.
Chi,
I get it but also been around long enough to know the executive boards usually pull the plug faster than the plan is their to support it. I am living in this hell now. Consolidation everywhere. Already know that we are axing a team in Europe and offering relocation. Relocation to where? No one knows. I will be on losing end of that soon enough too.
there, geez
“E-Trade integration. Obviously, whacking people, but also a lot of redundancy.”
Cuts are 1% of workforce. 5% is usual just to rid the firm of underperformers. And that’s before any M&A redundancy.
“..and here is MS’s solution. Paying a 24 year girl…The Fed will be okay with this solution after their “reprimanding”..wink”
You had the correct answer in your first post…
“No one cares.”
Big picture, the shit going on in this vertical just doesn’t matter enough.
Hey before you do your thing can you bring them by here for a bit? I could use a quickie before the weekend.
Israeli rappers call for Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid and Mia Khalifa to be KILLED in controversial chart-topping war anthem
“Retail sales post steepest decline since March 2023”
I guess the credit cards are reaching red line failure and that cliff is within sight now.
Fast: Some believe credit card balances don’t matter.
3b says:
February 15, 2024 at 10:16 am
Fast: Some believe credit card balances don’t matter.
They don’t. File for bankruptcy. Wait a year. Reapply. They are unsecured loans and don’t need to be payed back.
3b: I believe we’re approaching $1.2 trillion in cc debt and U.S. household debt is somewhere around $17.5 trillion. As John Blutarsky would say, “Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” I say we all trade in any car we have that’s more than two years old and treat ourselves to a new one. Debt be damned!
Phoenix: True, but that takes time, and in the meantime, they can’t charge anymore on maxed out credit cards.
Fast: Januarys retail sales numbers can be noisy, but that said the decline was expected to be 0.2 percent, but they dropped 0.8, that looks significant to me. Let’s see what the February numbers look like.
3b says:
February 15, 2024 at 10:31 am
Phoenix: True, but that takes time, and in the meantime, they can’t charge anymore on maxed out credit cards.
Well, depending the state, just stop paying your rent, that will allow you to recharge your batteries, then move on to the next abode.
Everything in life is about buying time. Clock is always ticking.
Hehe
A judge has thrown out Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss the Stormy Daniels hush-money case and has set a trial date for March 25 in a blockbuster hearing in a New York court.
The 77-year-old will be the first former president to stand in a criminal trial when he faces the jury accused of paying the adult firm star $130,000 to keep quiet about their alleged affair before the 2016 election.
He scowled at the packed courtroom as he walked to the front and sat back in his chair as Judge Juan Merchan rejected his bid to toss the case.
As he entered the building surrounded by cops, Trump insisted ‘there is no case’ and said New York should be focusing on violent crimes and the surge of migrants rather than ‘made up crimes’.
He ripped into the ‘dirty’ and ‘crime-ridden’ Big Apple, claimed President Joe Biden is targeting him because he is ahead in the polls and insisted there is ‘no crime’ even ‘if I am guilty’.
Trump should consider himself lucky. An acorn could have landed on one of the police cars.
Took the pathfinder to my mechanic to get checked out and an oil change. The dealer claimed I need 5k of work. Mechanic charged me $230 including synthetic oil change.
Real Estate investor defaults, lender gets bailed out, Real Estate investor borrows again, rinse and repeat.
No moral judgement from conservatives
Phoenix says:
February 15, 2024 at 10:27 am
3b says:
February 15, 2024 at 10:16 am
Fast: Some believe credit card balances don’t matter.
They don’t. File for bankruptcy. Wait a year. Reapply. They are unsecured loans and don’t need to be payed back.
Some of these guys running the service departments of dealerships are the biggest scumbags ever.
“If the air raid horns actually sound ( the kiss your ass good bye ones) go east to the ocean and steal a boat….It’s is your only chance….”
Dont worry, just head to Battery Park and Eddie Ray can give you a lift in his Zodiac as he sweeps in to pick up his HNW Nompound clients.
Does anyone have experience with PBA and elder abuse?
I routinely abuse the elderly.
I need the MS guys who belong to Navesink country club to give up their membership so I can get in there
Chgo: I know extended family financially abusing the elderly. I don’t know how they sleep at night.
Professional Bowlers Association?
Chi stay away from the cops even retired ones…. I would not be going down to the police station to even file a complaint against any of them retired or not. They are a gang and should be treated as one, stay off their turf. Any interaction should be done lawyer to lawyer only.
Putin: Says he would prefer the more predictable Biden over Trump.
Thinking along these lines
https://premierlegal.org/possible-elder-abuse-harmful-red-pills-nursing-homes/
I will say this. If you have an elderly relative that is beginning to show stages of decline, get their financial interests away from some of the bigger financial institutions, because they will do some pretty outrageous stuff.
Chgo: And tell them to put trustworthy in charge of everything. If any doubt at all hire an independent third party. There are family members who will financially and psychologically abuse their elderly parent/s. I honestly don’t know how they sleep at night.
pseudobulbar affect (PBA)
Putin: Says he would prefer the more predictable Biden over Trump.
So do the uber progressives. That goes for congress, too. Besides having a puppet in place, you can have the white w(h)ine crowd cater to the listless muppets of society as penance for their personal indiscretions.
The amount of meds these doctors put the elderly on us staggering. It leaves them drooling in the corner and ready to die. There’s a doctor who goes around eliminating all the meds they are on and watching them return to life in a few days.
BRT: It’s sad, and oftentimes family members request they be drugged to keep them docile. It’s truly shocking what some families will do to their parents. And, it’s more family members doing it than one might think.
Hoarding dough so that eventually is stolen by Private Equity, Bank or rapacious family member is not a good idea.
You ain’t taking it with you.
“…get [the elderly’s] financial interests away from some of the bigger financial institutions, because they will do some pretty outrageous stuff.”
chi, expand?
Not challenging, interested.
I just had to tell my mom to stop going to this one doctor (young female), trying to put her on 5 new pills, 1 of which, her cardiologist said “absolutely not”. The woman still insisted she take it against the cardiologists advice. 5 days later….”I’m not tired today, I think I’ll go out for a walk”.
What a winner….
https://youtube.com/shorts/xAIDXPhUYJA?si=I1S-_Jf4Q2dcft1W
It appears that a FA team of an elderly person with diminshed capacity colluded with a tax preparer (side job) who happens to be law enforcement. Changed the Will to include a member of a local women’s club of which one FA is member. Two years ago interested parties discovered the tax preparer interloper, and blew up his plan. Fine. Everything ok, but FA team was still looking to make fees if they couldn’t manage to abscond with assets.
Interested party comes to me to assess and fix. We issue instructions to yank assets away. FA team freezes everything under the pretense of “PBA suspected elder abuse”. At least client (and interested party) has several thousand K to tide us over until we can strong arm them.
No excuse for this stuff. Co-signers on accounts and also clean executed POA from a local lawyer two blocks from FA office. You all know this very high profile company.
From what I understand, this type of behavior is not uncommon (not the graft and collusion) when elderly people begin the fail and the institution wants to slow down the exit of assets as the bureaucratic issues begin to materialize.
leftwing says:
February 15, 2024 at 4:02 pm
“…get [the elderly’s] financial interests away from some of the bigger financial institutions, because they will do some pretty outrageous stuff.”
chi, expand?
Not challenging, interested.
Chgo: The family should file a complaint with the FINRA senior help line.