I want you to remember this number: 778. Got it? That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell in late September 2008 when the GOP defied a Republican president (George W. Bush) and killed the TARP bill which was designed to save our nation’s financial system. (Almost three years later the $700 billion bailout has been repaid, or so we’ve been told.) When the Dow fell 778 points that day angry constituents called their Republican (and selected Democratic) congressman and said (more or less), “Dude you blew up my retirement fund.” The TARP bill passed shortly thereafter. Just remember the 778 figure and multiply that by four (at least) and you can imagine the financial fallout that will happen the day our nation either defaults on its debt payments or decides not to send that Social Security check to Granny and Warren Buffet. You think I’m kidding? We shall see. But rest assured if we don’t get a deal the home buying and mortgage application business surely will suffer—immensely…
Let me see if I can educate: you cannot solve a $14 trillion debt mess by spending cuts alone. (Anyone who thinks so is a fool—and don’t send any emails to this column either.) You need cash and that comes via something called “revenue.” How do you raise revenue? We all know the answer to that question. It starts with a “t” and rhymes with “facts-is.” (See the Steve Miller song “Take the Money and Run.”) But seriously, the weekend is here and there is no-budget deal in sight, unless President Obama and Speaker John Boehner are out on the golf course, working on a compromise as we speak…
What do you mean they want to cap the mortgage interest deduction? Have they lost their minds? It’s as sacred as apple pie and Chevrolets (the latter of which Uncle Sam owned via GM). See the MID story on our website
If they cap the deduction and cut out the benefit for second homes does that mean vacation properties will fall in value? I hope so, because there’s a nice little house on the Jersey Shore that I would like to buy. Of course, if stocks fall 4,000 points on Aug. 2 (a Tuesday) I may not be employed for too much longer. Have I mentioned that it will be like Armageddon?...
National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report publish their 2Q rankings in the Monday edition of NMN. The volume declines aren’t pretty: down 29% for Bank of America, 26% fall off for Wells Fargo. Full a complete ranking of the nation’s top 100 lenders and servicers send an email to
Meanwhile, I’m working on a theory that the mortgage industry could be headed for a huge wave of deconsolidation with smaller firms and midsized regionals moving up in the rankings. Have any thoughts on this? Drop me a line at
Is MetLife’s decision to exit the banking sector but remain in residential mortgages a trend or just an aberration? Time will tell, but with all the new rules and regulations (Dodd-Frank, Basel III capital rules and MSRs) for the past year we’ve been hearing from industry officials who believe nonbanks may be the net winners here, at least when it comes to mortgage banking. Case in point: Just take a look at all the new conduits and mortgage REITs out there. (Bank of America has lost plenty of top warehouse and correspondent talent to publicly traded REIT, PennyMac.) Then again, many of these new creations are chasing jumbo loans and have yet to issue any MBS…
Has hedge fund manager John Paulson been humbled? This past week the man who made a killing by shorting the subprime market told clients in a conference call that he was dialing back his risk by moving away from bank holdings with heavy mortgage exposure. As I recall Paulson bought Bank of America when it was in nosebleed territory. Oh well…
WASHINGTON NEWS: The Mortgage Bankers Association and other trade groups are lobbying House leaders, urging them to extend the elevated conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. (Good luck on that front. All those new jumbo conduits want it to lapse—for obvious reasons.) And in case you missed it, the House late this past week approved a bill to convert the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau into a five-member commission, giving Congress more leeway over how the new agency operates. Of course, the bill is stillborn in the Senate.
BOOK CORNER: An editor from American Banker recently interviewed GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and spotted on his book shelf one lone book about the financial crisis: “Chain of Blame, How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis” by Paul Muolo (me) and Matt Padilla. Newt, give me a call.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company recently hired Jim Follette and Kim Nichols, adding them to the firm’s correspondent lending group. Both join PennyMac from Bank of America. Hmmmm…
MUST ATTEND MORTGAGE CONFERENCES: On Sept. 19-20 NMN and SourceMedia will hold its Mortgage Regulatory Forum show at the Washington Marriott in the nation’s capital. Speakers include OCC chief John Walsh, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and some congressman from Massachusetts whose last name is Frank. More info visit
IMPORTANT DATA STUFF: MortgageStats.com has just been updated to include not only full year 2010 figures but first-quarter information as well. MortgageStats boasts the nation’s top 400 lenders and servicers, including hard volume numbers and contact information. It also includes exclusive monthly analysis from me. (You can’t get this information anywhere else.) For more information drop an email to
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THE LAST WORD: OK, so the U.S. Women’s team lost to Japan and I was wrong on the score. It was a great game nonetheless. And to the wise guy who commented here, equating my knowledge of soccer with my knowledge of mortgages I have this to say: when I was coaching I never had a losing season. (OK, so it was Rec ball.)
