This week the Fed’s own holdings of MBS were unchanged, having been nearly unchanged last week. This seems a bit fruity, but perhaps is a signal that all the pending stuff has now closed and we won’t see a change again until they start selling these holdings. Foreign central banks sold a huge amount of obligations this week, having bought a gigantic amount the week before. Without transparency this sloshing about is getting a bit unnerving. This week’s Reuters report1 was, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 Here is Doom’s updated CSV…
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It’s not exactly Bob Dylan, but Rich Rector of Realty Executives sings the Shortsale Foreclosure Blues: (You might want to jump to 0:44) . . . . . .

It’s been a long time since we’ve visited Realty Times. A website that caters to realtors, it can always be counted on to look on the bright side, even when there isn’t one. Today they have an article by PJ Wade, a Canadian financial commentator.  As more and more people are hesitant to purchase a home in the current economic environment, Wade offers this advice: Waiting for things to go back to the way they were, and other “caught in the headlights” reactions, waste time and use up valuable resources. These “victim” strategies can make financial matters worse, as you…
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Surely somewhere old (and I do mean old) Bob Fludd is laughing his head off. Seems some bay leaf crowned idiot has been running around claiming that happiness maxes out at an annual salary of $75k.  Sounds suspiciously like a plot to get most people to try harder for a promotion.  Sort of the motivational HR manager’s equivalent of dangling the carrot in front of the horse. . . Guardian (9/6 ’10): “The price of happiness? £50,000pa” Well as it happens, the figure is right dead on, but the terms are incorrect.  As Bob’s good buddy Hilary Mantel well knows,…
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Doom and Bill Maloni go back several years. Although I rarely agree with the former senior Fannie lobbyist’s defense of the GSEs we are often ready to re-post his insightful articles. Especially when they say nice things about us ———————————————————– Happy September; Welcome Back to Work!! by Bill Maloni Private Label Securities, Redux In last week’s blog, I noted that Fannie’s and Freddie’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) took a surprising stand and wrote 64 issuers or guarantors of private label subprime securities (PLS) sold to Fannie and Freddie, to get them to pay their GSE debts. Because…
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With the Fed possessing a world-class stable of lawyers, it’s a safe bet that every jot and tittle of the boss’ sworn testimony is rock-hard supportable.  Here I’m more interested in what he doesn’t say.

Thanks as always to Michael David White, who’s graphs always equal a thousand words: What’s a government to do?  The New York Times said yesterday: Over the last 18 months, the administration has rolled out just about every program it could think of to prop up the ailing housing market, using tax credits, mortgage modification programs, low interest rates, government-backed loans and other assistance intended to keep values up and delinquent borrowers out of foreclosure. The goal was to stabilize the market until a resurgent economy created new households that demanded places to live. . . . Caught in the…
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No price is too high … Reuters (9/3 ’10): “Analysis: Obama running out of options to aid housing market” “It is very very difficult to engineer some kind of large-scale foreclosure relief that doesn’t benefit at least one of two parties that (voters) don’t want to help,” [policy analyst Raj Date] said, referring to mortgage bond investors and homeowners who bought houses they could not afford.

Regret it was my fault for this post being late.  Twist had her charts done quite a while ago, but we at Doom North have been busy tying Igor down and such-like tasks in preparation for hurricane Earl expected tomorrow. This week the Fed’s own holdings of MBS were static, rising just $0.001 billion (a “mere” million dollars). On the other hand, foreign central banks increased their holdings of Treasury Debt at the sixth fastest rate since February 2000, more than a decade ago. What’s that all about? This week’s Reuters report1 was, as usual, based on the weekly update…
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No Doomers, I haven’t disappeared this week.  I’ve been in New England, where I thought I’d post regularly.  The weather has been beautiful though, the relatives have kept me busy, and I figured that if I miss a day or two, the housing bust will still be there when I get back.  Look for me on Friday. Consider this an open thread.  Catch you later!