Career in MBS? Wow! Long-time ago, no wife, no kids. RTC days… I enjoyed working on Wall Street though. Most of the work I was doing back then was on the machine (computers) — assisting the traders, analyzing loan pools, programming, crunching statistics, developing reports, etc. Enjoyed the machine so much, that’s what I do for a living now, software engineer, building systems.
Developed a property and facilities information system about 10 years ago, important for institutional clients. Evolved into running a business (CEO), so things are good. It’s interesting work we enjoy (most days), solving real-world problems (no leverage) for good people (higher ed).
All these years though, I’m still an Econ-nerd at heart. I watch and try to understand what’s happening. Truthfully, I’m amazed at how things have unfolded the past 10 years, it’s challenged my assumptions and understanding about the economy. Have to add that I’m fairly concerned about the general direction of things these days (and not just on the economics side).
The current thread is fascinating material. There’s an assumption in asset-backed securities that the if the expected revenue stream fails due to higher percentages delinquencies and foreclosures, the underlying assets provide this kind of backstop of value for the investor. Kind of like an insurance policy.
Not true anymore. The revenue streams are failing, housing values have depreciated and it’s likely to continue along these lines for a couple more years. Meantime, a huge number of financial streams, balance sheets and price points in our ‘paper’ economy have been ‘marked’ to these values. The repercussions of the correction are likely to be, as we say in software, ‘non-trivial’. As much as I would wish otherwise.
