Category: Defaults

Liberally prudent or imprudently liberal? Part 2, how we’ll get out of it

15 September, 2009 (09:49) | Capital markets, Defaults, FHA, GSEs, Hard debt, Housing, US News | No comments

 By: David A. Smith
 
[Continued from yesterday's Part 1]. 

 
Yesterday’s post dismantled a slightly fear-mongering Wall Street Journal suggesting that FHA’s net worth would fall below the statutorily mandated 2%, and if so, that FHA would need a ‘bailout.’  In fact it does seem that FHA’s portfolio is under stress, with delinquencies up from 5.4% to 7.8%, [...]

Liberally prudent or imprudently liberal? Part 1, how we got here

14 September, 2009 (10:57) | Capital markets, Defaults, FHA, Hard debt, Housing, US News | No comments

 

By: David A. Smith
 
Every lender faces the challenge of setting credit policies: tight but not too tight.
 

That’s too tight
 
Too tight and the lender loses market share.  Not tight enough and the additional market share acquired turns into loan losses that sink the lender.
 
A public-policy lender faces the same dilemma but in reverse: liberal but not [...]