mortgages

In the video below, Bill Black argues that the Obama Administration, following in its tradition of not bringing forward criminal prosecutions, decided not to prosecute Goldman Sachs. Bethany McLean argues the other side. The host, Maria…

"Positive Housing News Keeps Rolling In," exclaimed the headline of a July 24, 2012,Wall Street Journal story by Steven Russolillo. The author found much to praise. One gloomy Gus could not help but conclude otherwise. Teke Wiggin…

Robert Shiller sees telltale signs of new bubbles forming in some of the former bubble markets. He mentions Phoenix and San Francisco as two notables.

Australian house prices peaked in June 2010. The motive force behind Australia’s bubble was the same as in the USA and Japan: accelerating debt drove rising house prices during the boom. Now in both those countries, decelerating debt is…

I have noted a number of times in the past that household debt levels in Canada have reached worrying levels. I am not the only one on to this. Canadian central bank head Mark Carney was in the news yesterday sounding the alarm on this as…

The bullish argument that houses are now generally affordable also does not hold up on closer examination. As we have repeated ad infinitum the average household has too much debt and is in the midst of deleveraging rather than taking on…

The following transcript and video is courtesy of Bloomberg TV where Bill Gross spoke to Margaret Brennan today, telling her that he thinks the Fed will go Qe3, but that it will shift to mortgage backed securities when Operation Twist ends…

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's lecture series at George Washington University is most unfortunate. The first instinct, at least here, is to let it pass. Two of the man's characteristics will be addressed in what follows. First, his…

Could a new paper published by researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis finally answer the question of whether affordable housing laws caused the subprime crisis? Yes.

This daily commentary is a bronze-level post. Today's comment is on the Irish desire to get their tracker mortgage obligations written down.