Tuesday, February 23, 2010

"It's like saying we're going to make some improvements in the Titanic after it's hit the iceberg"

Excerpt:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said the nation's home mortgage market is in trouble and will have to be "reconstructed."

"It's totally dependent, heavily dependent on government participation," Volcker said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "It shouldn't be that way. That's going to have to be reconstructed."

The federal government was responsible for up to 95 percent of all new home mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2009, said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, a leading industry publication.

"Anyone who looks at the numbers says, 'My God, look what it's come to,'" Cecala said in an interview Friday.

While Volcker hopes the nation's home mortgage finance system lessens its dependence on taxpayers, Cecala said it's going to be nearly impossible for a significant change to take place over the next year.

"We can't," Cecala said. "It certainly can't change in 2010. It's like saying we're going to make some improvements in the Titanic after it's hit the iceberg."

Voltron says: As I pointed out in the previous blog entry, there is no way anyone is going to lend money for houses at these low interest rates.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/19/paul-volcker-says-mortgag_n_469415.html

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