Category Archives: Economy

Housing Recovery Is For Real

The Mortgage Corner Those who doubt the real estate recovery aren’t paying attention to the latest sales’ data. We reported last week the Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 0.3 percent to 106.0 in … Continue reading

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Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Dilemma Won’t End Soon

Popular Economics Weekly The U.S. Treasury is in a bind. Everyone seems to agree that Fannie and Freddie, wards of the government should be downsized, but how to do it without damaging the housing recovery? Extreme conservatives even want to … Continue reading

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Pending Home Sales, Prices Continue to Rise

The Mortgage Corner Those who doubt the real estate recovery aren’t paying attention to the latest sales’ data. We reported last week the Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 0.3 percent to 106.0 in … Continue reading

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What Will the Federal Reserve Do??

Popular Economics Weekly Now the fat’s in the fire. Both stocks and bond prices have been falling of late, due to the fear that the Fed will end its $85 billion per month QE purchases of Treasury and mortgage securities … Continue reading

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Social Security Isn’t Dead

Popular Economics Weekly Social Security isn’t dead, or even dying, in spite of the prediction by the Social Security Trustees that it will no longer be able to pay full benefits by 2033. That’s because the Trustees use what are … Continue reading

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A Greater Recession, if Fed QE Ends Too Soon

Financial FAQs The stock and bond markets are sinking because of Fed Chairman Bernanke’s seemingly offhand remark that the Fed could slow down its QE purchases of securities as early as its June FOMC meeting. Now Organization for Economic Development … Continue reading

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Housing Prices at Seven-Year High

The Mortgage Corner The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index just reported home prices were accelerating strongly going into  a very strong April start to the Spring housing season. The Case-Shiller 20-city data show a very strong 1.1 percent monthly adjusted … Continue reading

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Ben Bernanke and the Fragile Recovery

Financial FAQs We know how fragile is the U.S. economic recovery just from the past 48 hours, because both U.S. and Japanese stock prices plummeted, and interest rates jumped on a seemingly offhand remark made by Fed Chairman Bernanke in … Continue reading

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Existing-Home Sales, Inventories Climbing

The Mortgage Corner Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April, reports the National Association of Realtors. This could … Continue reading

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Consumer Sentiment, Leading Indicators Signal Higher Growth

Popular Economics Weekly Both the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment survey and Conference Board’s Index of Leading Indicators rose in May, signaling that employment and growth may be stronger than forecast by most economists. How can that be with 7.5 … Continue reading

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