Refuse to Go Red for Women

Posted on February 2, 2016 by ScottC

According to the American Heart Association, the prevalence of heart disease among men is greater than among women in every age demographic. In the 60-79 age bracket, the prevalence among men is more than twice what it is among women. More than 1.4 times as many men as women have had a diagnosed heart attack or fatal coronary disease across all age groups.

In light of those statistics, it makes perfect sense, of course, that this Friday is Go Red For Women Day, during which the American Heart Association encourages people to wear red in order to “help support educational programs to increase women’s awareness and critical research to discover scientific knowledge about cardiovascular health.”

According to the AHA:

In 2003, the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute took action against a disease that was claiming the lives of nearly 500,000 American women each year – a disease that women weren’t paying attention to. A disease they truly believed, and many still believe to this day, affects more men than women.

Um…it does affect more men than women. It is rather unbelievable that the AHA is attempting to disabuse women of a plain and simple fact.

This is all of a piece with our increasingly female-centric culture which attempts to instruct us that whatever problems exist, they are inevitably worse for women. (Climate change to hit women hardest!) It is bad enough we have to suffer through sports seasons in which players, coaches and officials are pressured to where pink in order to “raise awareness” for breast cancer several times a year. At least women do in fact suffer from breast cancer more than men do, even if the “awareness” of the disease far outweighs its dangers relative to other women-killers. But this is just taking things to an absurd level.

Whatever this says about the AHA in particular or our screwed up society more generally, I highly encourage everyone to refuse to wear red this Friday, to protest this sexist denial of reality. Don’t believe it and don’t accept it. And keep your eye out….if, on Friday, you see more people without red on than with it, know we are winning the battle!

(BTW, I found out about this Red Day foolishness because my HR department, in that cloying way that only HR departments can achieve, sent around a circular encouraging all employees to wear red on Friday. When I presented them with the statistics on heart disease and wondered if they had ever promoted to employees a “men’s awareness” movement of any kind whatsoever, they replied, again in typical HR manner, “We are always looking for volunteers to promote important causes across a wide range of missions.” I’m taking that as a firm “No”.)

Filed under: Open Thread, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories | 17 Comments »

Morning Report: Marco and Bernie real winners in Iowa 2/2/16

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Brent Nyitray

Stocks are getting roughed up a little as overseas markets and oil continue to fall. Bonds and MBS are up sharply, with the 10 year trading just below 1.9%.

The ISM New York Index fell from 62 to 54.6 while the IBD / TIPP Economic Optimism Index ticked up slightly to 47.8.

The winners in Iowa last night were Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton. Unofficially, the winners were Rubio and Bernie. The losers? Donald Trump and the pollsters who had him in the high 40s. He came nowhere near that. Note that there are allegations of tomfoolery on the Democratic side with vote counting..

The correlation between global stock markets and the price of oil is somewhat strange – historically, high oil prices were considered bad for stocks, not good. While the drop in oil prices is certainly not good news for the big integrated energy companies, it is great news for consumers. Overall, the US benefits from low oil prices. The action in the stock market may be viewing the oil price as the canary in the coal mine for the global economy.

For the time being, the drop in commodities and stocks is keeping a lid on interest rates, which is a good thing for originators. The 10 year is heading back to late winter / early spring of 2015 lows. Fun fact, since the Fed raised the Fed Funds rate on December 16th, the 10 year bond yield has dropped 42 basis points. The trader in me says bond yields have fallen too far too fast.  Loan officers, if you have someone floating, try and lock ’em.  And wake up any potential borrowers who missed out on refinancing the last time around.

Delinquency rates continue to fall, according to Fannie Mae. In December, the seriously delinquent rate fell to 1.55% from 1.58% in November and 1.89% a year ago. Home price appreciation and an improving job market are doing their jobs.

With house price appreciation increasing well in excess of wage inflation, how affordable is housing these days? It depends on the statistic you use. If you look at the median house price versus the median income, you would conclude that housing affordability is approaching the lows of the bubble. However, if you look at the mortgage payment on the median house divided by median income, housing is at pre-bubble levels affordability-wise. Another argument to find people with ARMs and refi them in to 30 year fixed rate mortgages.

Filed under: Morning Report | 9 Comments »