{"id":4477,"date":"2008-09-17T09:29:58","date_gmt":"2008-09-17T16:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=4477"},"modified":"2008-09-17T09:29:58","modified_gmt":"2008-09-17T16:29:58","slug":"alex-ill-take-irony-for-600","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4477\/alex-ill-take-irony-for-600\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex, I’ll Take “Irony” for $600"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government is now in the mortgage business and<\/strong> the insurance business.\u00a0 I am sure others will expound on the AIG debacle and all of its implications in due course.\u00a0 I just wanted to point out the something that should make me laugh so hard it brings a tear to me eye… instead it just brings the tear.<\/p>\n

Just before each financial giant goes down, there is a final blow.\u00a0 One last lynchpin pulled that leads to the immediate cessation of breath for a company: the ratings agencies lower the company’s credit rating.\u00a0 Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, etc. take a look at the mortgage based assets the company is carrying, look at the write downs still to come and make an assessment on the credit worthiness of that company.\u00a0 Once their rating drops they cannot borrow money at a cost that allows them to remain solvent and “a-begging they will go.”<\/p>\n

Now that is the job of the ratings agencies and I do not begrudge them their responsibility.\u00a0 Here’s the funny<\/em> part though.\u00a0 The failing, mortgage-based assets that are crushing these financial companies (and now an insurance company) were originally purchased, to a large degree, based on the credit worthiness assigned them by… wait for it… wait for it… these self-same ratings agencies!\u00a0 Imagine the hubris of being so, so wrong in their primary mission of evaluating the creditworthiness of an investment vehicle, then lowering their evaluation of the creditworthiness of those companies that purchased the very investment vehicles they failed to correctly evaluate!\u00a0 Talk about having your bread buttered on both sides. I know there is a great joke in there somewhere.\u00a0 I am just too terrified to find it.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the other side of the looking glass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government is now in the mortgage business and the insurance business.\u00a0 I am sure others will expound on the AIG debacle and all of its implications in due course.\u00a0 I just wanted to point out the something that should make me laugh so hard it brings a tear to me eye… instead it just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-investment","7":"category-lending","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14866,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14866\/could-mortgage-rates-drop-after-a-treasuries-credit-ratings-downgrade\/","url_meta":{"origin":4477,"position":0},"title":"Could Mortgage Rates DROP after a Treasuries’ credit ratings downgrade?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"July 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The dictated debt limit deadline looms and a credit rating downgrade, to US Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities, seems likely.\u00a0 Naturally, a spike in treasury yields is expected and a subsequent rise in mortgage rates should follow. \u00a0 That's right out of the senior year textbook, in most American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2892,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2892\/zillow-mortgage-marketplace-one-way-transparency-like-a-bad-online-dating-site\/","url_meta":{"origin":4477,"position":1},"title":"Zillow Mortgage Marketplace: One Way Transparency Like A Bad Online Dating Site","author":"Brian Brady","date":"April 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Zillow Mortgage MarketPlace rang the opening bell and loan requests came flying in the door. I was pleasantly flabbergasted! It's no secret that I'm a Zillow-phile; I believe they are leading the way to transparent loan and real estate transactions. I'm tenuous, however, about spending too much time there. My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1747,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1747\/the-mortgage-tax-act-of-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":4477,"position":2},"title":"The Mortgage Tax Act of 2007","author":"Brian Brady","date":"August 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Cook did an excellent job explaining the two noteworthy debacles of last week. American Home Mortgage went belly up and Bear Stearns may be downgraded to a negative rating. Thursday afternoon, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, did his best Nero impression by muttering two words to analysts; \"Don't Worry\".\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3213,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3213\/the-meltdown-culprits-are-finally-punished\/","url_meta":{"origin":4477,"position":3},"title":"The Meltdown Culprits are Finally Punished","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"June 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished writing a comment regarding the mortgage meltdown which led to the credit crisis which has caused a real estate recession (don't you just love our fondness for allegorical alliteration!)\u00a0 We were playing the blame game over on a post I wrote regarding The Gang of Three and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/602\/ask-the-broker-who-is-responsible-for-the-mortgage\/","url_meta":{"origin":4477,"position":4},"title":"Ask the Broker: Who is responsible for the mortgage . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Holy smokes! I get questions for appraisers, for inspectors, for real estate attorneys, for everyone involved in a real estate transaction except the ding-dong Realtor. Here comes a question for mortgage lenders, who are entreated to chime in with better answers:Generally speaking, are homeowners personally liable for their mortgage? If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3237,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3237\/zillow-mortgage-must-verify-consumers-to-become-a-marketplace\/","url_meta":{"origin":4477,"position":5},"title":"Zillow Mortgage Must Verify Consumers To Become A Marketplace","author":"Brian Brady","date":"June 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Mueller is leaving the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. A poor consumer performance review drove him to do just that. From the consumer review on Zillow Mortgage: Rating: 1 \/ 5 Comment: I asked for conforming quote, got sent jumbo quote with huge fees. I even specifically noted the request in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4477"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4483,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions\/4483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}