Marc's Mortgage Matter's

The news yesterday also included the latest mortgage growth industry that is hiring. The Senate voted to hire hundreds more FBI agents and prosecutors to go after mortgage fraud and make a better attempt at dealing with the 5,000 incidents reported each month. The Senate bill is estimated to cost more than $265 million a year for the next two years, but is also expected to pay for itself because of the fines and penalties that would result from more aggressive government investigations. Another 160 special FBI agents and more than 200 support staff, including forensic analysts would be hired – a large increase from the 250 special agents currently assigned to financial fraud cases, and the Justice Department would hire 200 more prosecutors and civil enforcement attorneys, along with 100 support staff. Good news, I hope they put em all away and throw away the key!

In regard to the economy - Overheard from a long time trader, “It feels like we are in the middle of a 6-12 month window where it will be unclear if the economy & stocks have bottomed. The economy needs to digest all the stimulus, financials need time to heal their balance sheet, earn their way out of this mess. I'm much less negative than I was even 3 mo's ago, but I strongly believe there are many more interesting chapters to write.” Nicely summed up – stocks certainly continue to do well, in spite of some very poor earnings releases. That’s not what they taught us in business school!

Three sisters ages 92, 94 and 96 live in a house together. One night the 96 year old draws a bath. She puts her foot in and pauses. She yells to the other sisters, "Was I getting in or out of the bath?"

The 94 year old yells back, "I don't know. I'll come up and see." She starts up the stairs and pauses. "Was I going up the stairs or down?"

The 92 year old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful, knock on wood." She then yells, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."