Chris is right on more than a few levels. Ben used his wd-40 can to keep the engine from seizing, he didn’t save the world. Even if there was a 100 pt basis drop of the fed funds rate (read interest rate drops a full percentage) it will not start the housing craziness again and will not keep housing prices from falling. Even if fannie and freddie raise the conforming limits, we will not have a 2005 flashback. The game has changed permanently back once again, the institutions that give out money have realized that giving money to people without verifying if they can pay it back, or setting them up with a payment that will jump beyond their means or letting them in without any skin (o down) doesn’t work for the lender. It can work in certain circumstances but as the dominant loan product, it will come back to bite the lender. The secondary market has lost their appetite for the higher risk product probably for the rest of this cycle until the next genration is in place or the memory of what crow tastes like fades from this one. The economy will not tank but the housing market in So Cal will still return to normal levels on schedule, regardless of what the interest rates are. This can all be explained using my friend Bob and his dating exploits. Bob hit a streak where he was quite successful picking up girls to the point that he stopped asking too many questions and stopped using personal protection. Life was good for a while until Bob caught something, fortunaltely for Bob it was curable but it frightened Bob and he changed his ways. Initially he stopped going out and swore off his hedonist lifestyle. Now Bob is back to his old ways, wiser and more cautious, he asks questions and is never without protection. The lenders will end up like Bob, they will get their liquidity and interest rates back but they won’t look at customers the same, the scare will bring back balance. Didn’t think I could make a comparative argument using STD’s and the financial markets, HAH.
