Category: Top National News

Urban Institute, Apr. 7, 2016–Zandi, Mark
In today’s housing finance system, two behemoth institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, control most of the core infrastructure of the secondary market and take on most of its credit risk. While in many ways this system has served the nation well by providing a broad range of borrowers access to credit and a level playing field for lenders of all sizes, our reliance on this duopoly created perverse incentives that ultimately led to too much risk taking, forcing taxpayers to shoulder the resulting cost. 

Forbes, Apr. 5, 2016–Conerly, Bill
There’s good reason to expect long-term returns on capital to be lower than historic averages in the coming decade. This conclusion is somewhat speculative but one that should concern every investor in every investment class.

Bloomberg, Apr. 5, 2016–Schoenberg, Tom 
Stuart Delery, the Justice Department official overseeing civil investigations of banks for conduct related to the financial crisis, is stepping down April 14 to explore options in the private sector.

Wall Street Journal, Apr. 5, 2016–Eisen, Ben
As stocks sold off and volatility surged earlier this year, the talk of the markets was whether the Federal Reserve had lost control of the markets. Those concerns are going away quickly.

Minnesota Public Radio, Apr. 5, 2016–Moylan, Martin 
Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari believes not enough has been done to protect the country should one or more of the nation’s megabanks face failure.

National Real Estate Investor, Apr. 4, 2016–Mitchell, Donna  
The retail sector could see a 4.0 percent increase in rents in 2016, said commercial real estate services firm CBRE.

World Property Journal, Apr. 1, 2016–Rachid, Monsef
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest Commercial/Multifamily DataBook, the fourth quarter was the fourth highest quarter for borrowing and lending on record.

Bloomberg, Apr. 1, 2016–Fickling, David; Gopalon, Nisha
Get over your shock that Anbang Insurance dropped its $14 billion takeover offer for Starwood Hotels. It’s more surprising that the proposal got so far in the first place.

Bloomberg, Apr. 1, 2016–Levine, Matt
The MetLife decision counts as a loss for the post-crisis system of trying to create systemic stability by prudentially regulating (and/or shrinking) too-big-to-fail firms. The GE application surely counts as a victory.

Reuters, Apr. 1, 2016–Wiltermuth, Joy
Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan stripped out non-bank collateral on their latest commercial mortgage bond before it was sold to investors, winning favor with the simpler structure in a market scarred by volatility and regulatory pressures.