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Adding to the sector's woes - the Federal Reserve has indicated it plans to end a program that's helped keep mortgage rates at attractive levels for home buyers. The Fed program, which involved purchasing up to $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities backed by Fannie and Freddie, will expire on March 31. Rates have already started to inch up in anticipation of the change, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage surpassing the 5% mark in December. (See 10 things to buy during the recession...
...that said, I think they'll stop buying mortgage-agency securities, and the trillion-and-a-half-dollar check that's been written over the past nine to 12 months basically disappears. It's significant from the standpoint of interest rates and interest-rate spreads in certain sectors. And I would even go so far as to say it might be a mistake. (See the best business deals...
...secondly, there's a ripple effect. Just speaking about Pimco's general portfolio strategy, we've sold our agency mortgage securities, Fannie and Freddie, in the billions to the willing check of the Fed. They're buying a trillion dollars of them, or have over the past nine to 12 months, and so we sold them a lot of ours. Now, what did we do with the money? We bought Treasuries, we bought corporate bonds, and so the bond markets in general have benefited, as have stocks, because this available money effectively flows through the capital markets...
...Hainan Island barely two months into the Bush presidency. The resulting standoff reminded both sides that their economic relationship was far too important to allow a little geopolitical competition to get in the way, and that same economic relationship - with an ascendant China now bankrolling much of a trillion-dollar U.S. budget deficit - continues to shape the relationship under Obama. Sure, Obama's realpolitik has seen him refrain from some of the largely symbolic irritants to the U.S.-China relationship that Bush was willing to risk, such as meeting with the Dalai Lama or going to church in Beijing...
...battle over health care spread from Capitol Hill to town halls nationwide, as President Obama made reforming the $2.5 trillion industry his top domestic priority. At public meetings with lawmakers, angry voters denounced the supposed creeping influence of government in their lives. Democrats, meanwhile, struggled to sell a pricey overhaul amid a steep economic slump. Despite the poisonous debate, the pro-reform camp notched victories. On Nov. 7, the House passed a sweeping bill by a slim, five-vote margin. With Senators still haggling over their $848 billion measure, a final vote may be pushed...