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America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

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Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When these institutions were first created no one imagined the harm they would inevitably cause. Now that they exist they can't be killed, because they help some people. Like a lot of things, really.

Thats not entirely true. England has had a number of economic scandals before the US recieved their independence. There is also certainly a president of "too big to fail" to the point that the king was invested [0]. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

For an entertaining summary of this, I recommend the youtube series Extra History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1kndKWJKB8

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#72
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much everyone is saying that interest rates are going up in the US and are going to go up soon. Alan Greenspan just came out today saying people are going to be surprised how quickly they go up.

It's important to mention that they've been saying that for 7 years now, and that Alan Greenspan has been wrong about everything. We haven't even been able to get inflation up past 1.7%.

Agree on Greenspan, but do you really believe that the inflation rate has been 1.7%? Actual inflation is estimated to be anywhere from 3-7%, depending on the source.

The Fed, setting interest rates way below the actual inflation, is actually taking money from savers and retirees (rather than rewarding them), or forcing them to be reckless with their money by investing in principal-at-risk investments (which they should not at their age)

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#73
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much everyone is saying that interest rates are going up in the US and are going to go up soon. Alan Greenspan just came out today saying people are going to be surprised how quickly they go up.

> Pretty much everyone is saying that interest rates are going up in the US and are going to go up soon. I wouldn't say that. According to Bloomberg's interest rate predictor the probability of a hike before the end of the year, ie the definition of soon, is less than 50%. Even if you go out to the end of 2017 you still only get to 67% probability of a fed hike. And 67% is a far cry from "pretty much everyone". And e…

Interesting, I hadn't read the outcome of Wednesday's meeting. Prior to it the local Fed Chiefs were saying that they definitely expected one to two raises this year, and maybe as early as September. All rate hikes are usually minuscule, but they add up. 2 minuscule rate hikes would double the rate right now.

One reason to raise rates is that they were set as low as they were for emergency purposes. The emergency itself is over, so time to start increasing them a little.

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#74
post #61
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but since he worked in that position for years, he might have some kind of insight?

Insight on how to be incredibly wrong on a housing bubble?

Easy to say in retrospect. Wrong like nearly everyone else.

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#75
post #11
post #2

To sum it up, despite there being regulations on CDOs the real problem still exists. That problem is that loans are easy to get the gov stamp. Thos makes it easy for new home owners to get loans. And this makes it easy for sales people to sell the loans. Much of this opinion article is based on an other article [0] which seems less doom and gloom and more about the shift to a majority of state sponsored loans. This i…

This in itself its own issue in that capitalism isn't doing what it should be when everything is subsidized by the gov. Thus $500k 800 sq ft bungalows. You show me a chronic bubble and I'll show you a 'market' riven with subsidies, tax incentives, government secured debt and pencil whipping regulators. Healthcare, education, housing.... Yet when the bubble pops and the too-big-to-fails have to be 'recapitalized' all…

>Yet when the bubble pops and the too-big-to-fails have to be 'recapitalized' all we get from the ruling class is more hating on markets.

The reason this happens is that during the boom phase, the conservatives and libertarians, the defenders of the market, tell everyone things are going just fine. And then when it all blows up, they suddenly change their line and say it was all due to government subsidies and regulations. That is what happened last time, remember?

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#76
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still confused by the CDS bit. Is there a good eli5 article on it? I've already checked the eli5 subreddit and couldn't find anything specifically on the mechanism that allowed shorting.

Sure. The short answer is..... You(party A) and party B have a contract. You want to eliminate the risk that Party B goes bankrupt and can no longer pay you. You go to party C who will take small payments from you each month/quarter and in return they will pay you if party B goes bankrupt. Now the important things to note are: 1) The amount you pay party C is based on how you and party C analyze the bankruptcy risk o…

You're missing the very best part ... in many cases, the C parties allowed customers to assemble their own CDS specifically containing the very worst segments of the contracts between parties A and B (to stretch your analogy).

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#77

The fact that we were not able to ban mortgage securitization after the crisis is appalling. IMO this is the root of the problems. Make banks hold their loans on their balance sheets! I also think the point about banks having capital buffers is laughable and not logical. It's like claiming we've solved chronic migraines because we have a stash of Tylenol. The cause has not been eliminated. And let's say there's a cri…

It sounds like a reasonable theory on its face. However, the outcome of this is likely that banks will stop making loans all together. If they were to offer mortgages at all, it certainly would not be a 30 year fixed rate product. It's not correct to say that banks can sell off all of their risk through securitization. They do in fact retain some of the risk. Though most has been transferred. The buffer is (in theory…

>However, the outcome of this is likely that banks will stop making loans all together.

Really? We had a healthy mortgage market for a great many decades before mortgage backed securities were invented. And if mortgages are such a bad idea that banks can't make money off of them, then we shouldn't have them.

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#78
post #40

I'd agree that the US housing and derivatives markets are in a much better position than in 2007-2008. Atleast people who are getting mortgages now have some form of documentation, and risk manages are being asked to do their jobs. The crisis now is that, and this is just my opinion, low rates are here to stay. with the amount of money in the system, people are being priced out of homes and as time goes on the amount…

Pretty much everyone is saying that interest rates are going up in the US and are going to go up soon. Alan Greenspan just came out today saying people are going to be surprised how quickly they go up.

Here's a link to the Greenspan interview: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2016-08-18/a-closer-look...

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#79
post #40

I'd agree that the US housing and derivatives markets are in a much better position than in 2007-2008. Atleast people who are getting mortgages now have some form of documentation, and risk manages are being asked to do their jobs. The crisis now is that, and this is just my opinion, low rates are here to stay. with the amount of money in the system, people are being priced out of homes and as time goes on the amount…

Pretty much everyone is saying that interest rates are going up in the US and are going to go up soon. Alan Greenspan just came out today saying people are going to be surprised how quickly they go up.

I don't know if interest rates will go up or not, but when rates do go up, they can be swift.

The Adjustable Rate Mortgages offered by for example First Republic Bank are referenced to one-month LIBOR, and it went from 1.11% in May 2004 to 5.11% in May 2006, i.e. 4%-points in 2 years.

On a $1M mortgage, that's $40k per year in swing over two years (typically deductible, so you'd have to factor in your marginal tax rate to get effective cost).

http://www.macrotrends.net/1433/historical-libor-rates-chart

Re: America’s housing system still has not been properly reformed

#80
NIMBYism is already putting places like Palo Alto, Boulder, etc... well out of reach of the middle class, with a class of "haves" that live there, and "have nots" who have to drive in to work. What would happen to this situation if you killed the subsidy off?

What would it do to the dynamic between generations: older people got a big leg up, and you get nothing?

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