Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Memetrics
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
| Last | Change | |
| S&P futures | 4,109 | 9.50 |
| Oil (WTI) | 78.95 | -0.78 |
| 10 year government bond yield | 3.75% | |
| 30 year fixed rate mortgage | 6.33% |
Stocks are higher this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are down.
The week ahead will have some important data on housing and inflation, with the Consumer Price Index on Tuesday, and the Producer Price Index on Thursday. We will also get housing starts and builder sentiment. Other important data points are retail sales, small business optimism and leading economic indicators.
Mr. Cooper reported fourth quarter numbers on Friday. Funded volume was $3.2 billion, a decrease of 39% QOQ and 82% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Servicing income kept the lights on, and Mr. Cooper is valuing its MSR portfolio more conservatively (at 5.1x) than many of the mortgage REITs which seem to have values from 5.5x – 6.1x.
Loan demand is falling, while lending standards are getting tighter, according to the Fed. This is typical for an economy that is poised to enter a recession. Loan demand for residential real estate was weak, and standards tightened for HELOCs, credit cards, auto loans and other consumer debt.
The Fed also observed the same phenomenon for commercial and industrial loans, as well as commercial real estate.
The Atlanta Fed GDP Now Index sees 2.1% GDP growth in Q1, while the Street sees it coming in mildly negative.
Filed under: Economy |
All Things in Moderation 
In terms of surveillance, what’s the difference between a high altitude balloon and a satellite?
Why the freak out?
LikeLike
jnc:
In terms of surveillance, what’s the difference between a high altitude balloon and a satellite?
Why the freak out?
I don’t know if there is a substantive difference, but my question is, if there is none, why would China bother to invade sovereign airspace with a balloon? There is pretty much nothing about this episode that makes sense to me.
LikeLike
Because it generates better images than their satellites do? I.e. technological limitations of their satellites.
LikeLike
jnc:
Because it generates better images than their satellites do?
Possibly, in which case that answers your question.
My problem is this: If it gives the Chinese some new info or advantage that they don’t already have, then our reaction to it, ie allowing it to traverse the entire country before taking it out, makes no sense. If it doesn’t give the Chinese any new info or advantage, then them choosing to do it makes no sense.
It seems to me that there is something to this whole episode that we are not being told.
LikeLike
could have been nothing more than an exercise to see how we would react.
LikeLike
Not sure if this was linked when it was first released, but it’s a really good piece that’s making the rounds again:
“Bad News
by Joseph Bernstein
Selling the story of disinformation”
https://harpers.org/archive/2021/09/bad-news-selling-the-story-of-disinformation/
LikeLike
I readily admit to being wrong on all sorts of shit, none more so than government snooping on its citizens.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/the-fbis-most-controversial-surveillance-tool-is-under-threat/
It will always abuse it and refuse accountability.
LikeLike
Interesting article:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/power-mad-progressive-utopianism-must-be-stopped
Today, the threat of utopian politics comes from the radicalized center-left, not from the radicalized center-right. The term “progressivism” was revived in the 1980s and 1990s by Clintonite “Third Way” Democrats to distinguish their business-and-bank-friendly version of the center-left from the older New Deal farmer-labor version. But by the 2020s, “progressivism” came to mean something quite different—a commitment to utopian social engineering projects even more radical than those envisioned by the crackpot Bush-era neocons, libertarians, and religious right.
Three social engineering projects define progressivism in the 2020s: the Green Project, the Quota Project, and the Androgyny Project.
LikeLike
“radical libertarianism in trade and immigration policy, combined with the repeal of the New Deal through the privatization of Social Security and Medicare”
I don’t think this actually happened.
LikeLike
the author of this piece has some major blind spots
LikeLike
My enemies are so powerful even their desires, whether spoken or not, become my reality.
LikeLike
jnc:
I don’t think this actually happened.
Agreed. I think the author is attempting to burnish his critique of the modern left by establishing himself as a moderate non-ideologue who is equally willing to apply that critique to the right. (The classic “a pox on both houses” that are so common among self-proclaimed moderates.) I think the application of the critique to the right is strained and doesn’t make a lot of sense, not least for the reason you say…it didn’t actually happen. But I do think his analysis of what is currently going on on the left is spot-on.
LikeLike