Loan Think

What goes down 600 points one day, rises 400 the next, then falls 500, only to jump 200 on the fourth day? Answer: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, of course. I'm no expert on stocks except to offer this advice: buy low, sell high.

I hiked what I call a small mountain in Imerovigli, Santorini, Greece. From the pool, it's about 900 or so steps down (and up again, puff, puff) zigzagging along the side of a cliff. When the steps finally end, there's a skinny little path that winds its way around the side of the hill and up to the top.

I would guess that our nation's elected leaders – especially members of the GOP – woke this morning and saw the news in The Wall Street Journal that Fannie Mae is paying $500 million to buy $73 billion worth of servicing rights from the wobbly Bank of America. And then steam came out of their ears.

Over the past year I've written a dozen or so stories about so-and-so contemplating the creation of a jumbo conduit. But are any of these 'sounds like a great idea' conduits actually buying anything, and if they are, how much?

Every business to be successful has to have a written plan that needs to be followed and modified to fit changing conditions. That is not news—on more than one occasion, I have written articles on the topic.Not covered as much is the need to have a personal business plan put down on paper as a road map for growing your own sales.

Michele SimmsParris sued Countrywide Financial Corp. and Countrywide Home Loans under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to recover for the reporting of what she asserts was false information about her mortgage repayments.

Over the weekend Standard & Poor's poked the U.S. government in the eyes, with its debt downgrading. But hey, isn't this the same S&P that got whacked upside the head by Congress (and everyone else) for its crappy ratings on billions of dollars in subprime MBS?

Readers of the National Mortgage News website and our weekly have probably noticed our stories about the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. going after loan brokers on buyback claims. When looking at the issue as an objective third party we try not to take sides. But when it comes to column/blog writing, those rules are thrown out the window.

The mortgage job picture was not awful in June despite slow application growth. In total, the industry shed 2,400 full-time employees – 1,800 of which were loan brokers. (For the full story visit: www.nationalmortgagenews.com. Also, the mortgage numbers lag the national totals by one month.)

If you're an investor where do you park your money these days? Treasury bonds? Cash? Equities? Gold? Oil? Ladies and gentlemen, pick your poison because there are no clear bets unless you are solely trying to preserve principal.