Where Have All The Lenders Gone?
One of the defining characteristics of the current recovery has been a widespread risk-aversion; in fact this has been the most risk-averse recovery ever. This in turn has led to significant deleveraging and increases the money demand. Households, investors, Wall Street and Main Street are all stockpiling massive amounts of reserves (cash). The asset-to-liabilities (cash-to-loan) ratios of many financial institutions are approaching record levels. This has translated into a t
Ben Bernake Can't Get A Loan
Ben Bernanke Can’t Refinance Because Credit Is Still Ridiculously Tight Things have come to a pretty pass when even Ben Bernanke can’t refinance his mortgage, as he lamented at a conference in Chicago on Thursday. It’s likely that the former chairman of the Federal Reserve can’t refinance his mortgage because most of his income comes from 1099 sources rather than W-2s. Never mind that these are very large 1099s—he gets at least $200,000 per speech, Bloomberg reported last mon
How To Turn Millennials Into Homebuyers
On Tuesday, Fannie Mae released its latest contribution to a seemingly unending stream of research on one of the biggest problems facing the housing industry: What is preventing millennials from buying homes? The thrust of Fannie’s report said that millennials have reasonable access to affordable housing but are not buying, largely for reasons already known: high unemployment, not enough access to downpayment capital, lots of student loan debt and subpar median incomes. Fanni
