by Mike Kimel Update …Since this post has gotten a lot of attention, jump here for myfinal word on this topic. I’m sure I’m missing something here, because Paul Krugman is so often extremely perceptive, but I think here he is very, very wrong. He writes: The naive (or deliberately misleading) version of Fed policy […]

Barry Ritholtz, who generally knows better, blew a gasket at ISDA for yesterday’s ruling that Greek bonds are not yet in default. Specifically, “The International Swaps and Derivatives Association said on Thursday that based on current evidence the Greek bailout would not prompt payments on the credit default swaps.” > Here is a question for […]

Find a set of Mortgage-Backed Securities that are (1) still rated AAA by S&P, (2) have a WAL the same as (close to) an on-the-rin US Treasury, and (3) still have a Factor within 5% of the expectation of a generic MBS of that maturity  (that is, are not clearly impaired). Post the CUSIP(s) in […]

I had an informal discussion with a manager in an MBS IT area last month. Just a general conversation about the field and the data people check.  He mentioned FICO scores and I noted that I’m not fond of using them to evaluate a mortgage, especially for first-time homebuyers. Part of this is simple: it’s […]

Robert Waldmann ended my last post 5 minutes ago wishing for part III of the saga and here it is !The final act for AIG by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Brady Dennis The collapse was, of course, quick when it came. One interesting fact is that AIG Financial Products (AIGFP) stopped writing new CDSs in […]

Robert Waldmann Over at the Washington Post, Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Brady Dennis have a fairly interesting first of 3 articles on what went wrong at AIG. Of course, they tend to stress personalities and personal conflicts, but they do slip in some good points about economics. I’d say the key bit was that AIG […]