Time flies (see joke at bottom), and here we are at Pearl Harbor Day already. “I'm a multitasker. I can listen, ignore, and forget all at the same time!” Occasionally someone will accuse me of having a sense of humor. If true, it can be traced back to my parents, but a portion of it came from watching Norman Lear’s shows like All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, The Jeffersons, and movies like The Princess Bride (“as you wish”). Mr. Lear died yesterday, but his impact will be long felt. Audiences loved his shows. Does your customer love you, no matter the price? That’s the case with Coke. The average price of a 12-ounce can of Diet Coke in a package of 12 was 34 cents in 2018 but hit 56 cents per can in October 2023, a 65 percent increase. In general, Diet or regular, prices have shot up: The average price of a Diet Coke at a restaurant hopped up from $2.05 to $2.77. Inflation at many levels is impacting rates, including Treasury
Yesterday I was driving across Northern California to the coast (Gualala), and in Sacramento I asked the McDonald’s drive-through clerk (hey, only the best for me!) why the medium French fries were 30 cents more than the double cheeseburger ($4.29 versus $3.99). She immediately launched into an explanation of farming inequalities and Keynesian economics, and how aggregate demand does not necessarily equal the productive capacity of the economy. I shot back with, “Whoa, sister, where’s my extra catsup packet?” Okay, that exact exchange didn’t take place, but it did remind me of supply and demand, and mortgage rates, and there is an explanation of the current forces is in the capital markets section. There are a myriad of other things that CEO and owners are watching, many of which will be discussed today at 11AM PT during the Mortgage Matters podcast (register here) when Mark Jones, President of Union Home Mortgage and Chairman of the MBA, is the guest
My cat Myrtle doesn’t have a lot of rizz, and there are those that will argue that no cat has any charisma whatsoever. But plenty of marketing people do, or can create it, and even if you’re not in marketing, there are some clever marketing people out there. Creative minds as well, and if you’re looking for a Christmas present, here are the “best inventions of 2023” per Time Magazine. There is also cleverness and creativeness in the modular home manufacturing industry, probably far outpacing the ability of state and local government to issue permits. Meanwhile, lenders are facing a winter trying to figure out if they are in the “Survive until ‘25” camp or the “Grow more in ‘24” mindset? The credit industry is reeling as lenders grapple with soft versus hard pulls, renegotiating pricing, and bundled deals. And for some reason LO comp continues to be unsettled: dual comp, MLOs as real estate agents, transferring
“People would learn more from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them.” Here’s a little trivia for the compliance folks in the coffee room: The CFPB handles 20,000 consumer complaints per week, and given that financing a home, and then servicing the loan, is the largest financial transaction most individuals go through, you gotta figure a chunk of the 20,000 involve mortgages. While we’re on the CFPB, Director Chopra addressed issues related to refinancing in a hearing on Capitol Hill last Thursday. But the headlines have been grabbed by interest rate improvements in our free market economy, and the economics calendar this week will be highlighted by the U.S. jobs report on Friday, arriving just five days before the Federal Reserve's December 13 meeting. (Expect payrolls growth will rise to 200K in November from 150k job additions in October, and the unemployment rate to stay steady at 3.9 percent.) Today’s podcast can be fo
Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to nCino s Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.