For no reason other than it’s blistering hot where I live, I started counting up the major initiatives that the Obama administration is taking on and, you know, it’s staggering. Consider the following list: Cap-And-Trade — A major effort to impose a limit on carbon emissions that would eventually increase costs throughout the economy. Health […]
Archive for July 27th, 2009
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More NAR Whining About Appraisals
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 27th, 2009
I’ve written numerous posts about the contretemps over the new appraisal standards, commonly referred to as HVCC. The realtor industry keeps whining about the appraisal management companies bringing in appraisals that are lower than the sales price and this is scotching their deals. My position has been that it’s about high time appraisers brought in […]
Where’s The Derivatives Exposure?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 27th, 2009
Here’s another blow to the meme that the derivatives market is efficient at dispersing risk. It comes from a new study by Fitch. The report indicates that derivatives use by companies is fairly widespread but that the concentration of the risk is overwhelmingly found to rest with just five banks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, […]
New Home Sales Surprise On The Upside
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 27th, 2009
New home sales surprised big time on the upside. First, let’s look at the actual news. The Census Bureau reports that new home sales for June were 384,000, an 11% increase over May sales of 346,000. New home sales were 21.3% below the results for June 2008 of 488,000 homes sold. The inventory of new […]
