Left Coast Rick

Let's Use the 30-Year Treasury Bond to Reignite the Mortgage Market

This continues to be one of the best ideas out there because:

1) it deals with lowering the monthly houisng costs of individuals & families,
2) on a market basis, the lower costs will get the markets closer to healthy median income to home price ratios.
3) It would reward those who honor their debt obligations, and
4) it would defrost the credit markets.

A Little Known Fact, And Good News, About This Crisis

This was hysterical. The real interest comment was the goofiest. Your paying 6%, but 4% of your expense is actually income???--because the real interest rate is 2% therefore the inflation rate must be 4%--- maybe he's never heard of Case-Schiller--we're in the deflationary real estate part of the cycle.

Ben Stein Watch: November 30, 2008

Mr. Volcker a fine economist??? Sure, if you really want to kill the housing industry, which is almost what he accomplished in the early '80's. Volcker knows about stimulus, like W knows opera.

An Optimum Government Policy to Aid the Financial Crisis

Might help in, what, two years? Too little, too late.

Curing the Credit Crisis: A Better Alternative Plan

Your righteous indignation is appropriate, but ill timed, be patient. We need to restore the liquidity in the system........then we go and get the creeps. Once the new RTC, for lack of a current name, owns the bad assets, the Feds will have a bigger hammer to go after the bad people involved in this. Trust me, it will not go lightly. The FBI investigations of Freddie, Fannie, Lehman and AIG are just the start.

Curing the Credit Crisis: A Better Alternative Plan

ABG wants to fix the blame and not the problem--- but he starts with a fundamental assumption that is incorrect-- which is that there are enough healthy banks to survive his prescription for wide-spread "runs" on banks. Virtually all banks are in a liquidity crunch right now-- what used to be liquid assets are not easy to sell today, as virtually every instituition is a seller. Publishing "the list" will only siphon more liquidity out of the system. And then the FDIC must step in. So, if we go w/ ABG's plan, we will still have a bailout, but only after we've created more panic and finally sent the economy into depression.

There is very little liquidity in today's banking system to handle those kinds of runs. Banks are being required, in the immediate term, to de-leverage, which means they need to reduce lending. The only way to prudently de-leverage is to raise capital through earnings, offerings and as the loans payoff. The Paulson plan, while not perfect, would give banks the time for that to work. By all means, let's not overpay for the assets or allow the greedy executives windfall gains. But restoring liquidity is paramount.

The Home Sales Blip

How is the number of six million housing units sitting vacant generated?

What If What Economists Taught Us Is Wrong?

What Flav said, but I'd spell disease correctly...

FAS 157: Blackstone and Its Banker Buddies Have It Wrong

You conclude nothing...it's about management and saavy...wow, big insight...how about analyzing the assertion that FAS 157 is dangerous and defeat it...trouble is the way the regulators and CPA's are interpreting FAS 157 today is over-reactive...btw and it is causing, to a great extent, the absence of liquidity.

10 Notes on Residential Housing

johndough110 -- so you're telling the truth - ha!

Different Views on Housing Supply

Prices need to get back to 2003 levels before we see this thing level out. There is still no significant job creation in California -- the largest demand component for housing. Unless that happens, prices have to fall. Construction costs remain high, interest rates aren't getting lower, it's harder to qualify and it costs more for every day items, like fuel. What's hard to figure here...

Housing: US vs. Japan

It would be nice if someone would do some real analysis of fundamentals -- perhaps compare US job creation, population and household formation against those same stats of Japan for the same period. This would give great insight into the support or lack therof for US RE prices.

One might come to a different conclusion and a differnt french word.

Jumbo Mortgage Risk Will Topple the Teetering GSEs

This article had zero analysis of the risk profile of jumbo loans. The statistics I see show that jumbo loans carry a lower rate of default and lower rate of foreclosure than conventional loans -- resulting largely, it is thought, because these borrowers typically have higher incomes and career stability. Without an analysis like this, conjecture as to the risk to GSE's is just fear-mongering.