As a title insurance company, our business relies on a robust commercial and residential real estate market that’s being spurred on by a strong consumer! A consumer who’s confident about the country’s (and their own) economic prospects! Certainly, we have seen good recent economic growth as measured by GDP, but post-tax cut have we already seen […]
Do you remember where you were on September 15, 2008, the day that Lehman failed unleashing the unintended consequences of a global financial crisis that began to foment and then snowball? Consequential events may not always appear to be so, and as Lehman Brothers was allowed to go under most of us may not have […]
Ah, memories! Some good, some bad and some terrifying! In this case, 10-years after the global financial markets came close to collapse, the word terrifying would seem to be a good fit! But what went wrong in 2008 and is it possible the same could happen again? To my mind, one word seems to describe the environment […]
Articles From News Sources You May Not Currently Read… With limited time and so many sources for news and information to choose from, many of us tend to focus on one or two sources. These articles from outlets you may not typically use provide some excellent and interesting stories! Why Is Economic Confidence Not Translating […]
Imagine you’re a football coach and the game plan you drew-up is failing miserably or, at a minimum, just not getting the job done (think New York Jets and Giants)… Or maybe you’re the CEO of a business and, what you thought would be a phenomenal strategic plan, has for any number of reasons just not panned […]
Remember the 2008 financial crisis? Of course you do as it crushed many individuals along with entities entrusted as fiduciary’s that were managing OPM or, other peoples money! In the era leading-up to the implosion of the global financial markets, more than a few titans of finance from Wall Street to the streets of small school […]
Government Bonds And Consumer Debt Levels Soar While Bailouts Remain The Norm! This is an excellent read from an article at City Journal! These are some of the general takeaways… Some Key Points: ‘Bailouts remain the norm worldwide’ ‘In 2008, the world’s major central banks held little more than $6 trillion in assets, according […]
As mortgage loans originated to subprime borrowers are once again on the rise, so too is the delinquency rate for subprime auto loans! So for the buyers of securities backed by either subprime mortgages or auto loans as well as for the banks originating these loans, is there a cause for concern? In other words are we […]
Why you may be asking yourself is this title insurance guy incessantly writing about non-real estate related issues? The answer is of course that the economy, and the real estate sector specifically, are all impacted by what is happening to the global economy. And this includes the oil industry, bank loans to the oil industry, high yield debt from oil industry related corporations and […]
Hmmmm…Where and when have I heard the phrase “Home ownership is an integral part of the American Dream?” before? Was it in statements concerning the Community Redevelopment Act (CRA)* and that period in American history leading up to the great financial crisis of 2008? A time in residential real estate when basically anyone with a pulse could be […]
