Sometimes, when you have put those self-imposed deadlines in front of you, brain freeze is the result. Today, I pored over the newspapers and found that other people wrote about subjects that interested me. I felt I had nothing new to add, so I moved onto another article. Around and around I went, at a loss for an idea.
I thought about something my brother said to me recently about this very subject. He writes articles for his online trade journal and from time to time, brain freeze is his enemy, as well.
So, what he does is go to a fallback subject and is able to write about that. He finds that to be a successful ruse to help himself unfreeze an idea from the depths of his mind and he can go on for weeks at a time with no further issue.
Well, my fallback is banking, since I was a banker for over 30 years. Now, I know most people will find this boring. I mean, who cares about how interest is calculated, right? Or how banks amortize loans? Do you really care? I thought you wouldn't.
But here is something that might interest you. 9 banks control 69% of all bank assets. Read that again. NINE banks control 69% of all bank assets. That is what the Federal Reserve Bank classifies as "Too Big To Fail".
And here is something else you need to know-these 9 banks are the major owners of the Federal Reserve. The Fed doesn't exist without these banks. Oh, it looks like an independent entity. But, it's not.
The Fed has kept the rates low on its member banks to borrow, which in turn, has kept the prime rate and mortgage rates at historical lows. And because the mortgage rate is so low, what do think the result of that is? That's right. No mortgage loan for you.
The banks have made it more difficult to lend because credit has been tightened due to its own stupidity and greed from 1995 to 2008, when the financial markets came tumbling down.
And because the mortgage rate is so low, banks can't lend since no one will buy the loans at such low rates, even though credit standards have been tightened.
It's a viscous cycle we are in, and the Obama administration knows it. That's why a little reported story was told late last week, when someone in the administration said that banks should loosen their standards. So that people not normally qualified to obtain a mortgage could buy a home. Sound familiar?
So, maybe it's a good thing that the housing market is tough right now. Only those qualified to purchase a home with the right credit and financial history are risky enough to lend. And knowing that banks are "too big to fail" is probably good enough to know that these banks are also "not too stupid to make bad loans".
It will be at least another four to six years before the housing market comes all the way back. Which really is not a bad thing, considering how bad the economy has been since 2008. After all, do we want another financial crisis, perhaps worse than this one?
I thought about something my brother said to me recently about this very subject. He writes articles for his online trade journal and from time to time, brain freeze is his enemy, as well.
So, what he does is go to a fallback subject and is able to write about that. He finds that to be a successful ruse to help himself unfreeze an idea from the depths of his mind and he can go on for weeks at a time with no further issue.
Well, my fallback is banking, since I was a banker for over 30 years. Now, I know most people will find this boring. I mean, who cares about how interest is calculated, right? Or how banks amortize loans? Do you really care? I thought you wouldn't.
But here is something that might interest you. 9 banks control 69% of all bank assets. Read that again. NINE banks control 69% of all bank assets. That is what the Federal Reserve Bank classifies as "Too Big To Fail".
And here is something else you need to know-these 9 banks are the major owners of the Federal Reserve. The Fed doesn't exist without these banks. Oh, it looks like an independent entity. But, it's not.
The Fed has kept the rates low on its member banks to borrow, which in turn, has kept the prime rate and mortgage rates at historical lows. And because the mortgage rate is so low, what do think the result of that is? That's right. No mortgage loan for you.
The banks have made it more difficult to lend because credit has been tightened due to its own stupidity and greed from 1995 to 2008, when the financial markets came tumbling down.
And because the mortgage rate is so low, banks can't lend since no one will buy the loans at such low rates, even though credit standards have been tightened.
It's a viscous cycle we are in, and the Obama administration knows it. That's why a little reported story was told late last week, when someone in the administration said that banks should loosen their standards. So that people not normally qualified to obtain a mortgage could buy a home. Sound familiar?
So, maybe it's a good thing that the housing market is tough right now. Only those qualified to purchase a home with the right credit and financial history are risky enough to lend. And knowing that banks are "too big to fail" is probably good enough to know that these banks are also "not too stupid to make bad loans".
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