{"id":372789,"date":"2010-02-28T12:22:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-28T17:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/2010\/02\/28\/the-garrett-watts-report-chinese-new-year-issue\/"},"modified":"2010-02-28T12:22:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-28T17:22:33","slug":"the-garrett-watts-report-chinese-new-year-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/372789","title":{"rendered":"The Garrett, Watts Report (Chinese New Year Issue)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/garrettwatts.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"garrettwatts\" src=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/garrettwatts7.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"garrettwatts\" width=\"431\" height=\"68\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Overwhelmed managing your 40-50 employees?\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the number of employees at the biggest banks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table class=\"MsoTableGrid\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-collapse: collapse; border-top-style: none; margin-left: 1.7in; border-left-style: none\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffcc99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 1in; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: windowtext 1pt solid;\" width=\"96\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffcc99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">300,057<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffff99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 99pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-left-style: none; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">Citigroup<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffcc99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 1in; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"96\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffcc99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">271,863<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffff99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 99pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">Bank of America<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffcc99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 1in; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"96\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffcc99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">265,100<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffff99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 99pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">Wells Fargo<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffcc99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 1in; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"96\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffcc99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">209,854<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffff99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 99pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">JPMorgan Chase<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffcc99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 1in; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"96\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffcc99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">\u00a0 62,004<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffff99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 99pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">Morgan Stanley<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffcc99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 1in; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"96\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffcc99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">\u00a0 55,346<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffff99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 99pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">PNC<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffcc99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 1in; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"96\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffcc99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">\u00a0 54,593<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: #ffff99; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 99pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\">U.S.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt\" lang=\"EN\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Bancorp<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px\">A few others are BB&amp;T (32,809), Suntrust (28,015), Comerica (9,385), City National ( Los Angeles , 2,891), Sterling Financial ( Spokane , 2,601), Umpqua (1,840), Capitol Bancorp ( Michigan 1,345).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>By the way, if you\u2019re under a certain age, you might stay up night wondering what the heck PNC stands for. It goes back to it\u2019s being Pittsburgh National Bank and then, presumably, Pittsburg National Corp. Now you know.<\/li>\n<li>The loans-to-deposit ratio at individual institutions is always interesting to us, so we looked up some data in the FDIC Quarterly Report. Total loans among all banks is $7.28 trillion and total deposits is $9.22 trillion.\u00a0 That\u2019s a 79% loans-to-deposit ratio, and that\u2019s a good target number for most banks.<\/li>\n<li>Those of you who aren\u2019t commercial bankers might ask what the heck is the loans-to-deposit ratio?. Essentially, it\u2019s this:\u00a0 (1) You have $100 in deposits.\u00a0 (2) How many of those dollars do you put into loans?\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 Mortgage bankers ask us where the rest of the money goes if not into loans, and the answer is that it should mostly go into highly liquid securities, not necessarily chosen for their yield, but to give you maximum liquidity.\u00a0 Unlike a mortgage bank, the commercial bank has depositors, and when they come in to make a withdrawal, you need liquidity.<\/li>\n<li>We\u2019re really simplifying this, but think of those dark days when people lined up outside Indy Mac branches to pull their money out. If Indy Mac had a loans-to-deposit ratio of, say 60%. Let\u2019s also say they had $10 billion in deposits, then that would have meant $6 billion would have been in loans and $4 billion in highly liquid instruments like T-bills.\u00a0 That low ratio and all that liquidity would have been noticed, reassuring, and might have prevented or stalled government seizure. We have no idea what the actual numbers or situation was there, but you get the picture.<\/li>\n<li>Okay, are you now starting to see why this is interesting stuff? On one hand, investing your deposits in loans will make you more money than putting too much into T-Bills or Treasury bonds, right?\u00a0 Making 5% loans is better than 1% government paper, obviously.\u00a0 You want to have enough liquidity but not <em>too<\/em> much, so there\u2019s a balance you need.\u00a0 But this is just Freshman Loans-to-Deposit Ratio Analysis.\u00a0 The Upper Division course also looks at this ratio as a means of managing credit risk.\u00a0 Assuming you have enough liquidity, you also want to lower that ratio going into economic tough times (i.e. make and hold fewer loans). Getting it right is more art than science, but think of those banks that should have lowered that ratio in 2005. Making fewer loans then would have saved a whole lot of pain in the next few years.<\/li>\n<li>Commerce Bank (Cherry Hills, NJ) was one of the nation\u2019s most profitable banks till it was sold to Toronto-Dominion Bank a few years ago, and their stock out-performed Microsoft, Intuit, Apple and everyone else for a 20 year period.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the interesting part:\u00a0 As successful as they were, their loans-to-deposit ratio was rarely over 35%!\u00a0 They made all their money just getting cheap or free deposits, and they just never made many loans.\u00a0 Put another way, having too high a loans-to-deposit ratio means that a bank either doesn\u2019t know how to get low-cost deposits or has chosen not to seek them out.\u00a0\u00a0 If it\u2019s the latter, not seeking low-cost deposits means you\u2019ll go for <em>higher<\/em>rated deposits, and if you do that, you\u2019ll probably have to go after higher yielding loans to make your spread, and that\u2019s typically not a wise thing to do.\u00a0 That\u2019s enough classroom for today, so let\u2019s move on.<\/li>\n<li>Is there going to be a real estate bubble in China ? Well, you know all those shiny new high-rises in Beijing ?\u00a0 There\u2019s a slide show out there showing 55 of them that are 100% vacant, with another 12 that have to be photographed so they can be added.\u00a0 Not good.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>President Kennedy used to speak of a nuclear war as one in which the survivors would envy the dead.\u00a0\u00a0 After Hiroshima was bombed, a small number of survivors sought shelter in nearby Nagasaki where they were hit with <em>another<\/em> nuclear bomb!\u00a0 Shockingly 165 of them survived both bombings. <em>The Last Train from<\/em> <em>Hiroshima<\/em> is a new book that follows these 165 people and all the horrors they went through. We read bits &amp; pieces, and Kennedy was right. If you were a survivor, you envied the dead.<\/li>\n<li>We read a lengthy <em>American Banker<\/em> article (Feb 24) on Indy Mac and OneWest Bank, and the article said that at the time of its seizure, Indy Mac had the \u201chighest cost funding (i.e. deposits) of any bank in the country.\u201d Along with the Texas Ratio, having extremely high-cost deposits is a good predictor of failure.<\/li>\n<li>Two summers ago we were at Boulevard Bank in the St. Louis area, and we were walking down the street with one of their executives when we saw a National City branch.\u00a0 We stopped and stared at the sign in the window advertising unusually high CD rates, and we both had the exact same reaction:\u00a0 \u201cThese guys are going to be toast.\u201d\u00a0 And they were.\u00a0 If you want to see if a bank is in trouble, compare their CD rates to everyone else.<\/li>\n<li>We just watched the Chinese New Year\u2019s Parade in San Francisco , and it\u2019s a real favorite.\u00a0\u00a0 Miles and miles of floats and marchers and 300,000 people lined up on the streets watching and cheering.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite something to watch people celebrating this ancient culture and having a Western City so thoroughly embrace them.\u00a0 Wells Fargo had as great float featuring, what else, The Stagecoach. Gung hay fat choy.<\/li>\n<li>Does anyone remember Sam Bowie?\u00a0 In 1984 he was the second pick in the NBA draft, chosen <em>ahead<\/em> of Michael Jordan!\u00a0 You have to wonder which General Manager made that bonehead choice.<\/li>\n<li>We were just listening to <em>End of the Century<\/em>, the Ramones album produced by Phil Specter. Isn\u2019t it sad how things ended for all of them?\u00a0 Joey and Johnny Ramone died of cancer at a very young age.\u00a0 Dee Dee Ramone died of a heroin overdose. And producer Phil Specter killed a woman and will spend the rest of life in prison. (We don\u2019t know what happened to Marky Ramone.) If you have a love of music, if you like the absurd, and if you were ever a high school student, you should rent <em>Rock \u2018n Roll High School .\u00a0 <\/em>It<em> <\/em>stars the Ramones, and an added bonus is that Ashwin Adarkar\u2019s sister can be seen briefly as a dancing cheerleader in one scene. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=c5vh0QHUA1w\">Here\u2019s a clip for your viewing pleasure<\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rent it tonight.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/j31.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"j3\" src=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/j3_thumb1.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"j3\" width=\"221\" height=\"217\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Most of you who\u2019re mortgage bankers get 2-3 pages of financials every month.\u00a0 A balance sheet and an income statement, and probably a report showing you production numbers by branch.\u00a0 Those of you who are commercial mortgage bankers have monthly financials (essentially, a Board packet) that\u2019s <em>100-150 pages<\/em> in length. We think the composition of Board packages is <em>really<\/em> important.\u00a0 We could go on for hours about how important presentation is, how the reports look, visuals and the like.\u00a0 The issue is that you\u2019re asking Board members to wade through all these pages and make key decisions that affect issues of risk management. We like seeing tabs, pagination, and having all numbers spread out over 12 months.\u00a0 Graphs can be helpful, but they can also be overdone.\u00a0 We\u2019d love to see what the Board package looks like at a mega-Bank like Wells or Chase.\u00a0 When you have a bank with so many moving parts, it\u2019s critical how you present the information to Board members in a way that doesn\u2019t overwhelm them. And that\u2019s not just true for a trillion dollar bank but also for a $50 million bank.<\/li>\n<li>With all the trouble that Toyota is having, you can see a salesman saying, \u201cLook, it\u2019s still a great car.\u00a0 A Toyota \u2019s a Toyota !\u201d\u00a0 And that last sentence, \u201cA Toyota\u2019s a Toyota \u201d?\u00a0 It reads the same back-to-front and front-to-back.\u00a0 Cool.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We\u2019ve written here a lot about how correlation does not necessarily mean causation, and a perfect example is Mr. T.\u00a0\u00a0 Remember him, the mean-looking boxer with a Mohawk who fought Rocky Balboa? A study was done that showed that when each of his movies was released, it marked an exact point in time when gold prices made a major move.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/j23.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"j2\" src=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/j2_thumb3.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"j2\" width=\"232\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Regulators seem to believe that brokered deposits lead to high-risk loans, and we believe the opposite, that the high-risk loans lead to brokered deposits.\u00a0 For those of you with time on your hands, maybe you can find a correlation between high-risk lending practices and the release of movies starring Mr. T.\u00a0\u00a0 Please let us know what you find out.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cal brags quite a bit about its 26 Nobel Prize winners, and they may have a 27<sup>th<\/sup> in the wings. Berkeley researchers have found that beer is a rich source of the form of silicon that increases none density and prevents osteoporosis.<\/li>\n<li>Golf Savings ( Mountlake Terrace , WA ) is the model for every mortgage banker who dreams of owning thrift.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost exclusively mortgage banking driven, is 100% retail, with off-the-charts profitability. The fellow who runs it is Donn Costa , and it\u2019s really refreshing to know someone that successful and that humble.\u00a0 Anyway, we were talking to him over dinner last week, and he mentioned that he reads <em>US<\/em> magazine.\u00a0 How cool is that?\u00a0 We confessed to subscribing to <em>PEOPLE<\/em> magazine (not buying occasionally, but actually subscribing), and isn\u2019t it reassuring to find other respectable people who read the same trash?\u00a0 Our theory is that if you only read it when you go to the dentist twice a year, you\u2019ll never be able to keep up on Lindsay Lohan\u2019s latest rehab or who Jennifer Aston is dating.\u00a0 People, this stuff is important!<\/li>\n<li>We just got an e-mail from a friend telling us that <em>Love Story<\/em> was on TV tonight. Aside from the fact that whatever\u2019s on TV in Detroit probably isn\u2019t on TV in San Francisco , it really brought back memories of the 70\u2019s.\u00a0 <em>Love Story<\/em> was about a couple of Harvard students where they fall in love, and then the girl gets something awful like leukemia and dies.\u00a0 The big line was \u201cLove means never having to say you\u2019re sorry.\u201d\u00a0 It was one of those movies where your date would sob when Ali McGraw dies and you were supposed to act all broken up yourself like you really cared.\u00a0 Al Gore supposedly claims he was the model for the boyfriend who was enough of a dork that Gore might have been telling the truth.\u00a0 Anyway, if the movie shows up on your local TV station, find something better to do.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/j15.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"j1\" src=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/j1_thumb5.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"j1\" width=\"137\" height=\"188\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two of us spoke at the Seattle Mortgage Bankers Association dinner last week, and we can\u2019t begin to tell you how impressed we were with this group.\u00a0 Lots of local MBA groups have died out over the years, and the one in Seattle is very much alive and doing well. And isn\u2019t Seattle one of the most beautiful cities?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/garrettwatts.com\/\">Garrett, Watts &amp; Co.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHelping <\/em><em>lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Corky Watts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (<a href=\"mailto:CWatts@GarrettWatts.com\">CWatts@GarrettWatts.com<\/a>)\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Joe Garrett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (<a href=\"mailto:JGarrett@GarrettWatts.com\">JGarrett@GarrettWatts.com<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Mike McAuley\u00a0\u00a0 (<a href=\"mailto:MMcAuley@GarrettWatts.com\">MMcAuley@GarrettWatts.com<\/a> )\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?a=uRjXqG3tJVs:PsavucSk1p4:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?a=uRjXqG3tJVs:PsavucSk1p4:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?i=uRjXqG3tJVs:PsavucSk1p4:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?a=uRjXqG3tJVs:PsavucSk1p4:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?i=uRjXqG3tJVs:PsavucSk1p4:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?a=uRjXqG3tJVs:PsavucSk1p4:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?i=uRjXqG3tJVs:PsavucSk1p4:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe\/~4\/uRjXqG3tJVs\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,\u00a0 Overwhelmed managing your 40-50 employees?\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the number of employees at the biggest banks. 300,057 Citigroup 271,863 Bank of America 265,100 Wells Fargo 209,854 JPMorgan Chase \u00a0 62,004 Morgan Stanley \u00a0 55,346 PNC \u00a0 54,593 U.S.\u00a0Bancorp A few others are BB&amp;T (32,809), Suntrust (28,015), Comerica (9,385), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}