Whew what a day!  First I have to watch Blagojevich doing the talk show
circuit (go Rachel Maddow!), then Starbucks is only offering Decaf if you
wait for them to brew it and finally rates go up- again!

How much can we take!!! I can’t stand seeing that idiot’s hair, I drink 
decaf after 3PM and the rates keep going up instead of down as the media
suggests.

So, about rates- because that is why you are here. The stock market went up
today, so big investors (not Maddoff) pull money out of the Treasury bonds
to invest in stocks. The yield goes up and the mortgage rates also move
upwards. Jitters and jitters over home prices and sales (the Big Apple is
feeling it too), the Bad Bank is freaking people out and unemployment- more.

The Bad Bank is a government discussion to take all the bad debt off the
good banks’ books so they can dust off and start fresh. This should make
rates settle down and lending soften up- it did not.  Unemployment is
working against us. My finance textbooks say that as unemployment increases,
interest rates go down. This is currently not the case, and I think I know
why. The banks think that everybody they approve for a mortgage has the
potential to get fired. In light of this fear, they have created higher standards
of lending and greater scrutiny of borrowers.

I personally, I am very concerned about global warming and would like to invest
more of my efforts into advocating for clean water. Unfortunately, I now
spend more time explaining to clients why the rates ate not 4.5%, trying to
convince my lenders that my borrowers are not being fired tomorrow, and
lastly brewing my own decaf! (I am only kidding about the decaf- I would
never spend 4 bucks for a latte.) When will it end!

Dale Siegel

PS: As I click the publish button- AIG announced big bonuses to Manangement- ouch!