Our thoughts
and perspective
on life and money
Fixed 30-year mortgage rates dropped to an average of 4.78% this week. 15-year mortgage rates averaged 4.29%. If you have the equity in your house and can refinance, the window of opportunity is still open.
Today the National Association of Realtors released numbers on existing US home sales. It was a surprise to the market, feeding a run-up in equities, with the anticipation that the housing recovery may be a durable one:
Tight bank credit and high unemployment are cited in the article as some of the key reasons the Fed will not raise the Fed Funds target in the near future:
Bill Gross is one of the best bond managers, globally. Here he is on Bloomberg Radio:
A look at Washington state’s cities and how they rank in creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. Seattle’s rank has not changed from last year, Olympia moved from 9th to 7th, Tacoma dropped to 21st from 8th (due to the Russell move, no-doubt) and Spokane fell from 35th to 41st:
This article from the Wall Street Journal highlights a couple pieces of information: current TARP outlays, TARP repayments, the US debt ceiling and the pressures on this administration to reign in the deficit in the near future:
The following article is from TheEconomist.com, published November 11th, 2009. It is a timely article given the fear surrounding current US monetary policy and what it means for the US dollar as a primary currency reserve. I think the telling point in this article is “what are the options?” to the US $ as the primary currency reserve.
Let me preface this with saying that I always think that these types of graphs are self-serving for the people in my position. However, it is still interesting data when considering the recent run in equities:
This chart from The Economist highlights how the control of oil supplies will be one of the biggest economic and political challenges of the developing nations, specifically Asia: