Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
Stocks are flattish this morning after the House narrowly passed the budget bill. Bonds and MBS are down.
Bonds got smacked yesterday after a disappointing 20 year bond auction, which caused more selling in the stock market. MBS spreads widened as well. Bond investors are also monitoring the progress of the latest budget bill and how much it is expected to add to the national debt. The bond vigilantes are back.
Institutional Risk Analyst author Chris Whalen gave a good analysis of FHFA Chairman Bill Pulte’s address to the MBA. Pulte discussed how Democrats (especially Elizabeth Warren) were complaining about the removal of members of the Board of Directors for Fan and Fred. ““The boards of the GSEs don’t have a fiduciary duty to the Enterprises,” he noted. “They have a fiduciary duty to the conservatorship.” He then went on to say that the boards were “fake” and slowed the management of the Enterprises because they have no real function so long as the GSEs are under government control.”
The Biden Administration had added “layers of bureaucracy” in their management of the GSEs. Pulte said that FHFA intends to undo this. “If its not in the law, not in the actual statute, then it needs to go. We will do what Congress has told us to do, but if its not in the law, then we are not going to do it. What has happened in the last many years is that the FHA Director came up with these ideas and they would try to legislate from the bench, so to speak.”
Pulte also indicated that any move to release the GSEs from conservatorship would come from Trump. He also indicated that manufactured homes should have a bigger role in creating affordable housing, given their $100k – $150k cost to build. That said, manufactured homes are hard to finance because the land underneath them is usually leased and these homes depreciate about 3% – 5% a year.
Meanwhile, Trump has said he is giving “very serious consideration” to privatizing Fan and Fred. In a post on Truth Social, he said “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of CASH, and the time would seem to be right,” Trump said, without providing further details. The equity of the GSEs is probably around $350 billion or so, which the government would love to access. Raising that amount of equity would dwarf by magnitudes the largest IPOs ever, so that might be a bridge too far.
FHFA Director Bill Pulte is jawboning FICO about rising costs to pull credit.
Economic activity slowed in April, according to the Chicago Fed National Activity Activity Index, which is a meta-index of some 80+ economic indicators. Production and income indices (think the Fed manufacturing indices and ISM numbers) fell, probably due to tariffs. Employment was flat, while sales and consumption indicators fell modestly. The baseline in the index is historical trend growth, so a negative number does not mean a decline, just that the index numbers is below historical 3% (or so) growth.
In other economic news, Initial Jobless Claims fell to 227k from 229k. So far we are seeing little-to-no impact of the tariff shock in the labor market numbers.
Filed under: Economy |
All Things in Moderation 
This was an amusing and interesting piece:
https://hollymathnerd.substack.com/p/before-the-puppet-show
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It was a good piece, agreed. One issue I have with self-publishing is that most writers could use a good editor, not for content or clear meaning, most of the one’s I read are clear on the content and meaning, but on length. Sometimes these sub-stack posts read like Ayn Rand character monologues expounding on Objectivism – they seem endless and repetitive.
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Yes, and there’s no natural physical constraints on length, like there is with newspapers and magazines.
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True as well – the mind is free to roam.
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Related:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/20/biden-book-reviews-mental-acuity-00357152
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I love all the wide-eyed, whoda thunk it, pretend naivete. The American people saw it and acted accordingly. And the left can blame misogyny all they want for KH’s loss, lord knows I’m one, but to me, the problem wasn’t in the “messaging” or in KH, per say, though, like HRC, she’s a terrible politician. The problem the American voter’s had was in the policies. In short, the dogs didn’t like the dog food
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Aw, break your heart!
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/5/23/trump-admin-revokes-sevp/
6,000 students must transfer or face deportation – lol! Trump, you magnificent bastard!!
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At $55,000 a year, that’s $300,000,000 per year in tuition. I think though that foreign student tuition is even higher.
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I’d rather Trump just get rid of the non profit status for institutions with endowments above a certain size legislatively to contribute to deficit reduction rather than try and micromanage the colleges.
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I love the idea of taxing the shit out of them and using the power of federal dollars to stop with the woke bullshit, anti-semitism and discrimination. You need to embrace the heeling power of and.
They could refuse all federal dollars and then they could tell Trump to fuck off consequence free.
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If they are violating federal discrimination law, then bring a case on those grounds. His current approach is causing too much collateral damage.
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I’m certainly open to persuasion, what is the collateral damage?
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Happy Memorial Day to everyone. This is worth a read.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/05/23/memorial-day-ernie-pyle-military-graves/
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Have a blessed Memorial Day, everyone!
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They can’t even get basic facts right anymore:
https://nypost.com/2022/05/24/washington-post-deletes-tweet-that-george-floyd-was-shot/
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Someone is very scared.
I wonder what Cornyn offered to Trump so he could get LaCivita? And if he knows the minute he’s re-elected he reverts back to his old self? Finally, why help Cornyn? Losing to Thune for a leadership position has essentially doomed any influence Cornyn had in the Senate. Why not stay out of it and let Cornyn lose?
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Stuff the MSM won’t report:
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-elias-rodriguezs-leaked-chats
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Hilarious and relatable.
https://x.com/kfile/status/1927833137335157076?s=46&t=vSGsUlnc4rLxcUf7zfUiHg
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