Stocks enter the final hour with modest losses on little real news. June Durable Goods Orders fell 1%, a volatile series its hard to make much of one months data. That said it is the second consecutive decline, though the business spending proxy Nondefense capital goods ex. Aircraft increased strongly for a 6th consecutive month gaining 20.6% from a year ago. The rest of the report suggests consumer spending is slowing, not a good sign.
Mortgage activity slipped last week to 720.6 as per the MBA Index. Refi’s fell 5.9% to 3,918.1 as the 30-year contract rate increased to 4.7%. Purchase apps increased for a second week gaining 2% to 172.3.
Recently the HAMP re-default rate was reported to be a ridiculously low 2% after 6-months. Previously the re-default rate was running some 50% after 12-months. As one would expect a number of folks questioned the 2% figure. Today we get a retraction, apparently Fannie Mae, the programs administrator made a “mistake” and didn’t count all the cancelled modifications properly. As an aside Fitch’s Ratings figures the re-default rate to be 75% while Barclays Bank estimates that it is 60%.
The reason I bring this up is because the parade of mis-information, retractions, corrections etc., etc. have become endemic. The SEC exemption from FOIA requests included in the Financial Reform Bill signed by Obama and promised to increase transparency is yet another glaring example that would make George Orwell proud.
What this means is that the next time a Bernie Madoff or Robert Stanford robs the investing public blind in front of the SEC, they won’t have to suffer the public embarrassment of being shown to be asleep at the switch, because the public no longer has the right to know.
On the subject of financial regulation and the power of lobbyists we have this gem courtesy of the BigPicture Blog.
“The answer is yes, it does. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to justify getting out of bed in the morning and charging the outrageous fees that we charge our clients, which they willingly pay.”
-A former regulator, now corporate lobbyist, as to whether he had an inside edge in lobbying his ex-colleagues.
Charming stuff, Time magazine detailed the “return on investment” for lobbying Dollars and found that lobbyists were the best bargain in Washington DC. As an example, derivative trading banks spent 28 million lobbying, receiving an exemption worth 3-billion a year in extra profits while leaving the excessive risks with the taxpayer. Auto Dealers did even better spending less than 10 million to keep an extra 20-billion a year in undisclosed additional fees and higher interest rates on auto loans.
This isn’t democracy nor is it representation despite taxation, seems to me that’s what the American Revolution was about but I digress. This is the wonton fleecing of the American Public, wholesale destruction of the middle class whilst the republic goes to ruin by our elected representatives, who are sworn to protect it and uphold the Constitution, who get fat feeding at the lobbyists trough, collect a substantial, taxpayer provided pay and benefit package and generous retirement benefits since opting themselves out of Social Security. I became a citizen so I could vote, but what is my vote really worth.
Hi and welcome to The Profit Motive, I’m your host Caleb Lawrence. Once upon a time in America the media acted as the watchdog of the corporations and the state. In the modern era it’s all about ratings and profits, opinion has been substituted for news and frequently is presented as fact. 
