thegameiam ([info]thegameiam) wrote,
@ 2008-07-20 17:34:00
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Current location:home
Current mood: thirsty
Current music:Fountains of Wayne, "Sick Day"

da'at yahid
I think that Green is R.E.M.'s best album.

I think that none of the theories of evolution actually have anything scientific to say about the origin of life. Then again, neither does anything else.

i think that the housing / mortgage crisis could be largely fixed by simply banning the sale of mortgages until two years after the interest rate has reset.

I think that Petrosian was to chess what Leonardo (please, don't call him a place) was to engineering.

I don't mind fasting, and I like matzah.

I think the best comics I've read are Watchmen and Calvin and Hobbes, but not in that order.

I care about the difference between "who" and "that" with regard to the objects of clauses.


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Confirmation
(Anonymous)
2008-07-21 02:27 am UTC (link)
Indeed the theory of evolution does not have anything to say about the origin of life, that's an entirely different discipline. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.

-YB

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Confirmation
[info]thegameiam
2008-07-21 02:30 am UTC (link)
If I understand correctly, there is no scientific basis for any conclusive determination of exactly how a specific singular event happened - we can come up with plausible models about how it could have happened, but can't say with certainty.

So the origin of life is therefore left to the philosophers and theologers. I say let them have a cage match...

(Reply to this) (Parent)
mortgages
[info]bachrach44
2008-07-21 01:10 pm UTC (link)
I don't think you're a da'at yachid on that one. In fact, the US is the only modern country that allows the selling of mortgages at all.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: mortgages
[info]thegameiam
2008-07-21 02:48 pm UTC (link)
I'm pleased to hear that I'm not as alone as I thought on this; I had had conversations with a very intelligent expert in the housing field, and with someone who's a policy guy for a senior Democratic Senator, and they (for different reasons) thought that it wasn't a hot idea - the former because he thought the consequences would be too great, and the latter because he didn't think it would fly politically. :/

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: mortgages
(Anonymous)
2008-07-22 12:11 am UTC (link)
Two quick points:
1. Residential mortgage backed securities exist in many countries, not just the United States. (See, for example, the European Securitisation Forum's data on historical MBS issuance by country and asset type.)
2. The consequences are severely reduced liquidity in the mortgage market, higher interest rates, and the likely elimination of long-term (15 or 30-year) mortgages. Securitization is not inherently problematic; it's when there's shoddy underwriting and lax regulation that it becomes a problem.
A question:
If you are requiring banks to hold mortgages for two years after rate resets, how would you handle fixed-rate mortgages? Would they need to be held indefinitely or are they salable immediately?
-amj

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: mortgages
[info]thegameiam
2008-07-22 12:15 am UTC (link)
1) good info.
2) Why would that affect the longer-term mortgages? Those existed before securitization, I would assume that they would continue to exist even in a less liquid environment.

Answer: I would make the originating bank hold them for two years. My whole purpose in this is to find some fair, straightforward way to tie the reward associated with originating a loan to the risk of default. The things I've seen seem awfully complicated, and their upside seems pretty nebulous.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: mortgages
(Anonymous)
2008-07-22 12:42 am UTC (link)
Long-term mortgages first came about during the depression under the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (a government entity), but they became more prevalent in the late 1930s through the FHA and Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae created the secondary mortgage market for FHA loans. Before the HOLC/FHA, typical loans were non-amortizing, short-term (<5 years) loans. Private sector long-term loans came as banks sought to compete with the FHA's terms.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: mortgages
[info]thegameiam
2008-07-22 01:41 am UTC (link)
Interesting.

Do you know when securitizing mortgages took off? My impression would be the early 90's, but that's based on anecdotal evidence.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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