Let it happen or make it happen, it's up to you! Or, with mortgage rates, it is up to the Fed. The Fed’s buying mortgage-backed securities has kept mortgage rates low, right? And one way to attract private investors to buy mortgage securities is to make the yield attractive, right? Well, Credit Suisse is of the opinion that the Federal Reserve will probably slow its rate of mortgage-backed securities purchases this year to make room for private investors who have balking at buying low-yielding assets. Sure, low rates have helped during the recession, but according to CSFB the U.S. central bank may begin weaning the market from its support, at least in part, in a bid to raise yields and entice other investors.

In ING’s case, they decided to “make it happen”. Effective for loans received on or after June 1st, the cost of the ING credit report and ING flood cert will be charged to the borrower on the HUD-1. (These fees were formerly paid by ING on behalf of the borrower.) The cost for the ING credit report is $8.50 for single or $11.00 for joint, and the ING flood cert is 6 smackers. ING reminded their customers that the borrower will continue to be charged their underwriting fee of $695.00.

Last summer the Office of Thrift Supervision authorized “inappropriate” backdating of capital by six institutions, including IndyMac Bancorp Inc., that led to “misleading financial reporting,” the U.S. Treasury inspector general said in a report. The Treasury report said the agency allowed “misleading financial reporting by the thrifts” and needs to tighten oversight by issuing guidance to OTS examiners laying out steps to prevent backdating of capital contributions. Thrifts were instructed to “infuse capital and backdate the capital.” IndyMac’s revision of its capital injection helped it avoid falling below “well capitalized” status, which would have required the lender to seek a waiver to accept certain risky deposits. As we know, IndyMac collapsed two months later, in spite of having been helped to avoid OTS restrictions.

What else is going on ahead of the three day weekend? Not much. Yesterday was not a great day for mortgage prices, and in fact Fannie 4.5% securities, which include loans from 4.75% up 5.125% (where most originators are right now on their rate sheets) are the lowest (worse) they’ve been since mid-March. Hopefully the Fed's program of buying MBS’s will keep a floor on any further price movement. Speaking of the US Treasury, next week they will be selling $40 billon of 2-yr, $35 billion of 5-yr, and $26 billion of 7-yr notes.

Other than that, there is no scheduled economic news today as everyone on the East Coast is looking forward to being able to wear white after the weekend. Leading Economic Indicators were up 1% in April, the biggest gain since November 2005, after a 0.2 percent drop in March. The index is believed by many to point to the direction of the economy over the next three to six months. And the Philadelphia Area Manufacturing Survey (“Philly Fed”) dropped at a slower pace, but is still contracting. This morning we find the 10-yr at 3.33% and mortgages a smidge better.

For the IT folks out there:

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed, Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html, try to download Tears 6.2, and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If those applications work as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5..

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will

download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta..

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5..0-program. This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck!

Signed, IT

Rob

(For archived commentaries, check www.robchrisman.com, or to subscribe write to rchrisman@robchrisman.com)