Haiku

A colleague, starting her masters program, takes unexpected leave. It’s the latest leave-taking; it seems so many have left this season. I’ve found a program I like, I can almost imagine how that announcement will be taken.

Seeing people off,
being seen off–
autumn in Kiso.

Is it no surprise I find myself reading Basho?

Spigots

I’ve now heard from two sources that mortgage lending in the SF Bay area is effectively dead. As the second put it:

Jumbo loan processing in the Bay Area, as far as they know, is completely halted. 20% down will NOT make the cut. It is more like 50% down and FICO score of above 750 plus full doc, and the bank may still think about it.

– OO, on Patrick.Net

Now that that spigot has been tightened down, there still remains the question of how to clean up after the excesses of the past few years. This morning’s sudden news of a cut in the discount rate has been taken by many as a sign of capitulation by the Fed, as were its repo operations the week prior. I think this conclusion is premature.
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