Why let central banks and large money managers have all the fun? It’s simple. Just open up an account at http://www.forex.com/.

Groucho Marx once stated, "One morning while on safari, I was woken by a loud noise outside my tent. I grabbed my rifle and shot an elephant in my pajamas. What he was DOING in my pajamas, I'll never know." With the gradual (or abrupt, depending on some investors) move away from wholesale lending channels, please remember that NL Inc. continues to try to expand our retail base through bringing on origination branches and agents. So please keep in mind that if you hear of any branches or agents looking for a partner, please have them give us a call (Donny Isaak at 925-295-9326 or George Moody at 925-295-9327).

The residential mortgage market is estimated to be in the $10-11 trillion range. Remember that 1,000 billion equals a trillion, and that 1,000 million is a billion. This isn’t a lesson in measuring the distance between planets, but a reminder of the scale of the size of these numbers. For example, Merrill Lynch wrote down $8.4 billion by re-valuing bonds primarily backed by mortgages. This represented 1/8 (one eighth) of their net worth. It is still a lot of money.

Capstead Mortgage out of Dallas (remember them) reported a net loss of $3.15 million for the third quarter.

First Bank Mortgage (Irvine) announced that they were exiting the wholesale business channel.

This morning mortgages are off slightly next to treasuries. What lies ahead for the week in terms of economic news? Quite a bit! Nothing today, but tomorrow we have Consumer Confidence and the beginning of the FOMC meeting. Wednesday we have Gross Domestic Product, the Employment Cost Index, National Association of Purchasing Managers, Construction Spending, topped off by the results of the FOMC. Thursday we’ll have the usual Jobless Claims, along with Personal Income and Consumption. And on Friday all of our employment data comes across.