The New Misadventures Of Andrew Cuomo
BLOG VIEW: One of my all-time favorite buffoons is Andrew Cuomo, who formerly served disastrously as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing...
The Danger Posed By The Too-Big-To-Fails
WORD ON THE STREET: Just as health authorities in the U.S. are waging a campaign against the plague of obesity, banking regulators must...
Seven Fears That Are Holding You Back
REQUIRED READING: It has been said that 'FEAR' stands for 'Forget Everything And Run.' It's that uncomfortable, disconcerting feeling that causes us to...
Stop The Insanity In The Due-Diligence Process!
REQUIRED READING: Albert Einstein is credited with saying that 'the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting...
Jason Cholewa: Promoting Good Health For Mortgage Bankers
PERSON OF THE WEEK: During the rise and fall of the subprime market, Jason Cholewa worked as a loan officer for several mortgage...
The CFPB Circus Rolls On
BLOG VIEW: I never truly appreciated the cynicism of the Obama administration until last week, when the White House announced that it was...
Ensuring Accountability And Transparency In Foreclosure Appeals
WORD ON THE STREET: We are all painfully aware that home prices declined precipitously from their peak in 2006 and 2007, resulting in...
Bringing A Manufacturing Mind-Set To The Quality-Control Process
REQUIRED READING: Before the housing bubble burst, the most important elements of quality control (QC) in the mortgage business were the credit quality...
Practical Tips For Staying On Top Of REO Coverage
REQUIRED READING: High volumes of foreclosed homes and shadow inventories, coupled with prolonged foreclosure timelines, mean that more defaulted and foreclosed properties will...
Gabe Leibowitz Takes A Slice Of The Big Apple
PERSON OF THE WEEK: As Ol' Blue Eyes once crooned about New York City, if you can make it there, you can make...
Four Common Misconceptions About The Federal Reserve
WORD ON THE STREET: As you know, ever since the financial crisis began, the Federal Reserve has been lauded by some and criticized...
A Change For The Better: Remediating Regulatory Concerns
REQUIRED READING: Change is the one constant in today's mortgage servicing industry. Fallout from the financial crisis has resulted in unprecedented change to...
Product And Pricing Engines Meet Mortgage Banking’s ‘New Normal’
REQUIRED READING: People in the mortgage banking industry are beginning to talk about the 'new normal.' The notion is that after years of...
A Pro/Con Analysis Of Loan File Diversification
REQUIRED READING: When 14 major mortgage servicers signed consent orders with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in April, it...
The Case For Fully Privatized Mortgage Markets
WORD ON THE STREET: The U.S. is the only country with mortgage intermediaries of the form of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two...
Taking A New Approach To RMBS Valuation
REQUIRED READING: Following the global financial crisis, residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market participants have paid more attention to developing better processes to evaluate...
Is FHA Claim Processing The Next Servicing Nightmare?
REQUIRED READING: It was bound to happen. It was always known that the rapid market growth of the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) insured-loan...
Bad Docs Still Weigh Heavily On Investors
REQUIRED READING: In today's high-speed, high-tech world, how often do we mindlessly hit the 'accept' button just to get quickly to our desired...
The Robin Hood School Of Economics
BLOG VIEW: You cannot enrich a financially bankrupt nation with intellectually bankrupt politics. Unfortunately, too many members of today's American public are broke,...
Manufactured Housing Continues To Face Financing Obstacles
WORD ON THE STREET: Today, there is no better example of a redlined community than the local manufactured-housing park. Inside most parks, there...