Confounded Interest – Anthony B. Sanders
Financial Markets And Real Estate
The Imperial March from Star Wars should have been the theme for Bidenomics, the top-down government-directed economy (mainly to political donors). It will take a while for the economy to recover from its addiction to Federal government spending.
Speaking of The Empire, the New York Fed’s Empire State business activity survey declined to -19.30. Would Jerome Powell and The Fed have cut rates had they known about the Empire activity survey yesterday?
Emperor Palpatine. Aka, 10% Joe.
Mortgage applications decreased 6.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 14, 2025.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 6.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 0.1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 6 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
The Refinance Index decreased 13 percent from the previous week and was 70 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
Mortgage rates increased for the first time in nine weeks, with the 30-year fixed rate rising to 6.72 percent. This increase in rates led to a decrease in refinance volume. However, purchase application volume inched up to its highest level in six weeks, led by a 3 percent increase in FHA purchase applications. Overall, purchase application volume is up 6 percent compared to last year at this time. Growing inventories of homes on the market and steadier mortgage rates are supporting homebuying activity thus far this spring.
New USDA data reveals a third consecutive week of price declines at supermarkets.
But the media is always willing to blame Trump for anything, including eggs prices.
Velocity of M2 Money is back to where is was when Trump left office the first time.
Eggs versus M2 Money.
Riding the Trump wave of economic optimism!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), inflation is slowing (mercifully) to 2.82% in February.
Core inflation checked in at 3.1% YoY.
Let’s see if Powell and The Federal Reserve keep on printing!
The US economy is gradually recovering from Bidenomics (government/donor dictated spending). Mortgage applications increased 11.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 7, 2025.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 11.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 12 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 7 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 8 percent compared with the previous week and was 4 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
The Refinance Index increased 16 percent from the previous week and was 90 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
Mortgage rates declined for the sixth consecutive week, with the 30-year fixed rate dropping to 6.67 percent, the lowest level since October 2024. As a result, applications increased over the week and were up 31 percent from a year ago.
Turnover speeds are arisin’!
Thank God President Auto Pen is out of office!
Inflation? Lower real wage growth? Excessive personal loan growth?? All resulting in historic subprime auto loan delinquency rate of 6.6%.
Auto Loan 60+ Day Delinquency Index
German 10-year bond yields are trading above euro interest rate swaps for the first time in history (-12.62), a watershed moment for these markets that underlines just how much investors have soured on government debt.
Bund yields +30bps today – the biggest spike on record going back to 1990.
Is the US next?
Trump inherited a brittle economy from “The Fool” Joe Biden. And it is shown up.
The Trump Administration is fighting the remnants of Biden’s policies by cutting spending (DOGE) and deregulation.
All this has resulted in a soaring US Dollar.
Tarot cards have officially renamed “The Fool” card as “The Biden.” Although in Washington DC, there is no shortage of fools (see Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rashida Talib (D-MI).
Former Federal Reserve Chair and Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was so in on Biden’s failed economic spending spree that she caused a fiscal disaster by refinancing Federal debt at the short end of the Treasury curve. Leaving Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a real mess. As in $9.2 TRILLION.
With interest rates rising, this is a planned disaster by Biden/Pelosi/Schumer.
The Fiscal 3 Stooges!
We are now seeing the aftermath of Biden’s failed, top-down, Soviet-style economic policies (or follicies). And it is grim. Bidenomics is now fully exposed like The Fully Month. Except this is The Full Joe!
The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2025 is -1.5 percent on February 28, down from 2.3 percent on February 19. After recent releases from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and the US Census Bureau, the nowcast of the contribution of net exports to first-quarter real GDP growth fell from -0.41 percentage points to -3.70 percentage points while the nowcast of first-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth fell from 2.3 percent to 1.3 percent.
Another sign of Biden’s failed, top-down cronynomics is housing. Pending home sales fell to 70.6.
Little did we know that Biden’s falling on Air Force One’s stairs was symbolic of what was to come.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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