Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
| Last | Change | Percent | |
| S&P Futures | 1455.6 | -2.1 | -0.14% |
| Eurostoxx Index | 2697.9 | -11.4 | -0.42% |
| Oil (WTI) | 92.64 | -0.5 | -0.48% |
| LIBOR | 0.305 | 0.000 | 0.00% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 80.56 | 0.061 | 0.08% |
| 10 Year Govt Bond Yield | 1.90% | 0.00% | |
| RPX Composite Real Estate Index | 192.4 | 0.3 |
Markets are slightly lower this morning after last week’s big rally. This week looks to be relatively light data-wise. 4Q earnings season kicks off tomorrow with Alcoa announcing after the close. Bonds are up small after last week’s sell-off and MBS are flat.
Basel has relaxed some of the requirements for the liquidity coverage ratio, and delayed the implementation in response to requests from the ECB. The ECB feared that the new requirements would lead to a credit crunch and would require banks to be over-invested in sovereign debt. Now banks will be allowed to count corporate debt, residential MBS, and even equities as liquid assets. While MBS and bond price behavior is dominated by the Fed and QE, the net effect will push banks to hold MBS and sell Treasuries, so you should be aware that the 10-year could sell off and MBS could rally.
On the other side of the coin, last week’s sell off in bonds and MBS has fueled fears that the housing recovery may stall as rates rise. Much of the boom in prices last year was in areas hit hard by distressed sales, as professional investors snapped up properties in places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Detroit. The 20% price increases there have probably run their course. Rising rates would certainly end the refi boom that banks have feasted on for the past year, meaning originators will have to go back to the ground game of building relationships with realtors and focusing on purchase activity.
The worst merger in history continues to plague BOA. They agreed to pay Fannie Mae $3.6 billion to settle repurchase claims and to repurchase another $6.75 billion of bad mortgages. Worst merger since Steve Case sold Ted Turner a bill of goods just as the internet bubble was bursting. Separately, Nationstar purchased a $215 billion servicing portfolio from BOA as well. Half is GSE / Govvie and half is private label. They paid $1.3 billion.
Republicans have declared tax increases off the table for the upcoming negotiations on the debt ceiling and the sequestration. Obama has already said that cutting spending has to go “hand-in-hand with tax law changes so that the wealthiest corporations and individuals can’t take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren’t available to most Americans.” My guess is that he is talking about carried interest and oil “subsidies” and not about further increases in marginal tax rates or further limiting the mortgage interest deduction. Oh, and we need a clever name for the upcoming negotiations on the sequestration and debt ceiling.
Filed under: Morning Report |
All Things in Moderation 
we need a clever name for the upcoming negotiations on the sequestration and debt ceiling.
In the spirit of going over the fiscal cliff we could call the debt ceiling, “jumping off the roof”. Sequestration is a little more difficult. I think of juries when I hear that word.
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As well you should, LMS.
Based on that, I dub this round the “disobedient whale” talks of March 2013. To be followed by the “beached whale” accord.
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Not-So-Clever Names:
The Glass Debt Ceiling
The Sequester Fester
Extortion Junction
The Granny Starving Derby
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yello:
The Glass Debt Ceiling
I had thought of that one too, but decided that it actually expresses the exact opposite of the situation we face. A glass ceiling refers to an invisible limit on something. The ceiling is there, but it appears not to be. What we have with the debt ceiling is something that appears to be there, but isn’t really a limit on anything. More like the debt ceiling mirage.
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How about Deadbeat Day, an irregularly scheduled holiday from rationality.
BB
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“The Neverending Budget Battle”?
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NoVA, I give you 10 likes for that suggestion!
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I’m sure everyone’s watching the big game…………………Go Notre Dame! I just wanted to brag a little about daughter number two. She started her job in Denver this morning (finally) and found out what she’ll be working on. They put her on the new exploration team for CO, WY and UT and bumped her to 5 1/2 weeks vacation, gave her a window office on the 16th floor looking out at the Rockies, a gym membership, free downtown parking and every other Friday off. Now she knows why everyone called her the Golden Girl last year when she landed the job everyone wanted (she had no idea). She’s the only newbie on the newly designed team with a ratio of 4 to 1 geologists to engineers (very unusual), which means she’ll have a lot of experienced people to learn from and of course she’s totally jazzed about that. Now all she has to do is earn her keep.
She’s the beginning for our family to move into an entirely new category of employment that none of us are remotely familiar with. I’ve never personally known anyone who makes as much money as she’s going to make…………….it’s weird. It’s been a long hard slog for all of us, especially her, but the work finally paid off. I’m looking forward to handing the reins over to her as the matriarch of the family. She’s also a really nice person…………………..thank God.
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Congrats! Good for her and good for you and your family.
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Not to go to OT, but Van Halen, when David Lee Roth was with them, may have been the most kick-ass rock and roll band of all time. Of All Time!
If I’m lyin’ I’m dyin’.
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Funny Taranto today over at the WSJ.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323482504578227664228137272.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet
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I’m not a fan of either team. I find Notre Dame’s holier-than-thou image offputting while Bama epitomizes the monster football institutions which dominate college football.
And I saw Van Halen with Diamond Dave way back in 1981. An amazing band in its day.
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Don’t let Teh Krugman read this story, he’ll shoit himself.
This cannot be possible! KKKKKKEEEEEEEYYYYYYYNNNNNNEEEEEEESSSSS!!!
A taste: “Texas’ economy is humming again after lawmakers in 2011 wrote a cut-to-the-bone budget as the nation lurched out of the Great Recession.”
http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_22325694/texas-comptroller-reports-jump-revenue-96-billion
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I saw Van Hagar perform. Have to say, Eddie showed Sammie that there is indeed more than one way to rock.
I suspect the Keynesians are quite happy seeing the double dip recession in the UK. Texas is not a sovereign nation (even though it sometimes seem to think so). ¡¡¡HHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!
BB
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Not a good night for the Irish. Ugh. I looked into getting tickets for my wife, who is an alumnus. Glad we decided to pass on that. That game was over after the muffed punt/penalty. or maybe the 3rd down pass to the TE that was bobbled out-of-bounds.
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Texas A&M [aTm] had a history in the SWC and the B12 of claiming in its press releases and on its stadium, Kyle Field, that it had won championships in years that it had not, based on some perverse logic, understood by Aggies.
aTm having beaten ‘Bama in the regular season, will surely add “2012 National Champions” to the Kyle Field banners.
George, you know I’m right!
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Mark:
The aggies aren’t the only ones. Notre Dame and Alabama each claim National Champion status for the same year…twice, in both 1930 and 1973. ’73 seems to be an easy one to call, given that the Irish finished undefeated and beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Somehow, though, the Tide counts ’73 towards its total.
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Is anyone else noticing random ad links inserted in their comments? For me in Firefox, the word “Sugar” in Scott’s recent comment is a link to a fat pill, or some such.
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Nope…haven’t seen that. Very weird.
Scott – it doesn’t happen for me in chrome or opera, so I have to think it has something to do with ff.
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Ad blocker for FF fixed it.
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Somehow, though, the Tide counts ’73 towards its total.
Tuscaloosa is not renowned for its prowess in mathematics. I still discount Colorado’s claim in 1990.
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The fifth down?
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yello:
I still discount Colorado’s claim in 1990.
I discount Florida State’s in ’93. Both they and ND finished with the same record, and ND beat them head to head. That the polls made FS number 1 was just a sop to nice-guy Bobby Bowden who had never won one.
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The fifth down?
Yup. Plus they had a loss to Illinois and a tie to Tennessee while Georgia Tech was technically undefeated with a tie to North Carolina.
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BTW, yello, there is a comment of yours that is “pending” approval.
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Don’t know how that happened. It seems I can just approve it. Thanks for the heads-up.
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NP
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