{"id":77884,"date":"2009-12-12T08:51:21","date_gmt":"2009-12-12T13:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/2009\/12\/12\/the-garrett-watts-report-december-12-2009\/"},"modified":"2009-12-12T08:51:21","modified_gmt":"2009-12-12T13:51:21","slug":"the-garrett-watts-report-december-12-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/77884","title":{"rendered":"The Garrett, Watts Report (December 12, 2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/garrettwatts.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" src=\"http:\/\/mortgagenewsclips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/garrett-watts15.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"garrett-watts1\" width=\"364\" height=\"79\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A friend recently asked what a Brooks Machine was.\u00a0 She was told it was some sort of underwriting machine or underwriting process, but we\u2019d never heard of it.\u00a0 Have any of you?\u00a0 Was someone pulling her leg? If you know about this, write us. Curious minds want to know.<\/li>\n<li>Remember 2007 when only three banks failed, and even 2008 when only 25 failed? We\u2019re already at 130 this year, with two more Failure Fridays left. Actually, one of them is December 25<sup>th<\/sup>, and it\u2019s hard to imagine the FDIC seizing any banks on a Friday when the bank is closed, especially Christmas day. So maybe that means only one Friday left in which they can take down banks. Of course, there\u2019s nothing preventing them from grabbing a bank on other days of the week, and they\u2019ve done that occasionally.\u00a0 Our vague recollection is that they did the Indy Mac seizure on a Thursday.<\/li>\n<li>Remember last issue when we showed that among the biggest banks, the Texas Ratio was best at BofA and Citigroup, the two banks that seem to worry people the most?\u00a0 Here\u2019s a rundown on the Tier 1 Capital ratios for the six biggest banks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table class=\"MsoTableGrid\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; background-color: #ffff99; border-collapse: collapse; border-top-style: none; margin-left: 113.4pt; border-left-style: none; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 45pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; border: windowtext 1pt solid;\" width=\"60\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">9.1%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; 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;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">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; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 45pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"60\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">8.5%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; 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;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">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; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 45pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"60\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">8.2%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; 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;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">JP Morgan 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; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 45pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"60\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">6.8%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; 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;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">U.S.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Bancorp<\/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; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 45pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"60\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">5.6%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; 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;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">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; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 45pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"60\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">5.2%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; 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;\" width=\"132\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Comic Sans MS; color: black; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; color: black; font-size: 10pt\">Wells Fargo<\/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\">Notice how the BofA and Citi are the strongest here as well?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Doesn\u2019t it seem sometimes that picking stocks is like picking the winner of a beauty contest?\u00a0 One of our favorite Keynesisms was his comment that if you\u2019re trying to guess the winner, the idea was not to pick the contestant <em>you<\/em> thought was the prettiest, but to figure out whom the <em>judges<\/em> would think was the prettiest.\u00a0 If you like picking stocks based on fundamentals, then you want to study every feature and aspect of the company.\u00a0 If you\u2019re into charts and technical analysis, you don\u2019t care who looks the prettiest to you.\u00a0 You just want to figure out which way the judges are leaning, i.e. what other investors are voting for with their stock purchases.\u00a0 Does that make sense?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We were talking to Don Brown at Secondary Interactive, and they now have what we would call a Data Detective that scrubs your pipeline daily looking for errors.\u00a0 We were very impressed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We just looked at a portfolio of free standing properties for sale, all leased on a triple-net basis to the big pharmacy company, CVS. The cap rates ranged from 8.5% to 9.1%, and with such a good tenant, wouldn&#8217;t the cap rates have been half that a few years ago?<\/li>\n<li>We\u2019ve been retained to find a Chief Financial Officer for a mid-sized mortgage banker in the San Francisco Bay Area.\u00a0 If you know anyone interested, or even yourself, please have them send a resume to JGarrett@GarrettWatts.com<\/li>\n<li>If you\u2019re looking for one iconic story that symbolizes the financial meltdown, look no further than the auctioning off of the W Hotel in Manhattan this past week.\u00a0 Isthimar World Capital paid $282 million for it only three years ago.\u00a0 The winning bid at the auction was, hold your hat, only $2 million. The new owner is responsible for $97 million in mortgages, so you could say that they really bought it for $99 million. But that\u2019s still a long ways from $282 million.\u00a0 But then, who wants to own a hotel where they can\u2019t afford full strength light bulbs?\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Did you know that best friends Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra both shared the same birthday, December 12<sup>th<\/sup>?\u00a0 If they were alive today, Sammy would be turning 109 and Sinatra would be turning 94. Maybe six months we read Sammy Davis Jr.\u2019s autobiography, <em>Yes, I can<\/em>, and it was actually pretty interesting.\u00a0 His conversion to Judaism was particularly compelling, and his writings about the racial discrimination he faced furthers our belief that America had its own form of Apartheid till not too long ago.<\/li>\n<li>We just saw the most powerful movie we\u2019ve seen all year.\u00a0 <em>Brothers<\/em> stars Toby McGuire as a Marine Captain who saw horrible things while a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan . When he returns to his wife and family, McGuire\u2019s performance will remind you in its intensity of Robert DeNiro\u2019s character in <em>Taxi Driver<\/em>, and maybe Christopher Walken\u2019s acting in <em>Deer Hunter<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll never again think of the boyish looking actor as Spiderman.\u00a0 We predict he\u2019ll get an Oscar nomination.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It seems weird, but we think the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> does the best sports reporting out there, bar none. Last week they took the average salary for all major league players last year and came up with the average salary by position.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table class=\"MsoTableGrid\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; background-color: #ffff99; border-collapse: collapse; border-top-style: none; margin-left: 59.4pt; border-left-style: none; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#ffff99\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 110.95pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; border: windowtext 1pt solid;\" width=\"148\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$7.4 million\u00a0 1<sup>st<\/sup><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>base<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 137.15pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-left-style: none; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"183\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$4.6 million\u00a0\u00a0 Starters<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 111.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-left-style: none; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"149\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$4.3 million\u00a0 2<sup>nd<\/sup><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>base<\/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; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 110.95pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"148\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$7.3 million\u00a0 DH<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 137.15pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"183\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$4.5 million\u00a0\u00a0 Outfielders<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 111.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"149\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$4.1 million\u00a0 Catcher<\/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; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 110.95pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"148\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$6.4 million\u00a0 3<sup>rd<\/sup><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>base<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 137.15pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"183\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$4.4 million\u00a0\u00a0 Shortstops<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 111.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in;\" width=\"149\" valign=\"top\">\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\">$1.8 million\u00a0 Reliever<\/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\">It\u2019s interesting that designated hitters are so well paid, considering how one- dimensional they are.\u00a0 If DH\u2019s are overpaid. We think a top reliever is way underpaid.\u00a0 Your ace closer will appear in 70+ games and save maybe 35 of them.\u00a0 Maybe the poorest relievers would have saved 20 of them anyway, but that still leaves your ace responsible for 15 wins.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you ever wondered just what Charles Schwab\u2019s Bank does with your money?\u00a0 Of all 8,000 banks in this country, they rank #10 in terms of the percentage of their loan portfolio made up of Home Equity Loans. The Schwab Bank holds $6.7 billion in loans, of which a scary 45.7% are HELOCs.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that an absurd concentration?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Someone wrote us that Jim Morrison actually sang &#8220;Mr. Mojo\u2019s Rising&#8221; and not \u201c<em>My<\/em> Mojo\u2019s rising\u201d He also heard that the phrase is an anagram for Jim Morrison.\u00a0 It\u2019s clearly not, but people, let\u2019s not over-intellectualize this.\u00a0\u00a0 Jim Morrison was arrested for \u201cplaying\u201d with himself on stage, so when he say\u2019s his Mojo is rising or <em>Mr<\/em>. Mojo is rising, either way, well, what do you <em>think<\/em> he\u2019s referring to??<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If you\u2019re looking for funny names, the U.S. House of Representatives sure doesn&#8217;t have many.\u00a0 We just looked at a list of all 435, and there\u2019s a Congresswoman named Bordello, but that\u2019s about it.\u00a0 Oh, there\u2019s a Randy Neuberger ( Texas ) and a Howard Berman, ( California ) as in Neuberger, Berman but that\u2019s real Wall Street trivia and would only be funny to a handful people if they were to co-sponsor a bill.<\/li>\n<li>Remember when Loan Origination Systems first started, and almost all processors refused to use them.\u00a0 They wanted to stick with typewriters and white out.\u00a0 Today\u2019s struggle to go paperless reminds us of that, and just as we now take an LOS completely for granted, this will be the case eventually with being paperless. If you\u2019ve read about Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, or Lewis &amp; Clark, you know that pioneers often get lost and discouraged early in their adventures.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>We just read a WSJ interview with the CEO of Ryanair, the Irish deep discount airline.\u00a0 He said, and he\u2019s serious, that they\u2019re thinking of having the last ten rows of the planes removed, installing handrails, and selling standing room flights for about $2.00. Sounds crazy, but maybe it make sense for a flight of an hour or less.\u00a0\u00a0 Um, what happens during turbulence?<\/li>\n<li>Last week we showed how cheap things had been in 1960. The ever-diligent Steve Zabel of Idaho First Bank calculated the price rise over the past 50 years.\u00a0 By his calculations, the federal deficit has grown at an average 2.9% per year, the $.04 stamp has grown at a rate of 4.9%, That 1960 $0.29 gallon of gas has increased at 4.8%, a Chevy at 3.6%, and salaries at 4.8%.\u00a0 It seems strange, but if the federal deficit is growing at a mere 2.9% per year since 1960, that means its growing even slower than the rate of inflation.<\/li>\n<li>This past Friday the list of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Banks with Dumb Names<\/span> was reduced by one. Solutions Bank failed, and get this, its $421 million in deposits got picked up by Arvest Bank for free. Arvest did not pay even $1 point to the FDIC for the deposits.<\/li>\n<li>If you live in Reading , Kansas , the main bank in town is called Tightwad Bank.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/garrettwatts.com\/\">Garrett, Watts &amp; Co.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<em>Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Joe Garrett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (<a href=\"mailto:JGarrett@GarrettWatts.com\">JGarrett@GarrettWatts.com<\/a>)<em><\/em><\/li>\n<li>Mike McAuley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (<a href=\"mailto:MMcauley@GarrettWatts.com\">MMcauley@GarrettWatts.com<\/a>)<em><\/em><\/li>\n<li>Corky Watts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (<a href=\"mailto:CWatts@GarrettWatts.com\">CWatts@GarrettWatts.com<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?a=GYMCYx3bS-4:2PFgXqzW6yY: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=GYMCYx3bS-4:2PFgXqzW6yY:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?i=GYMCYx3bS-4:2PFgXqzW6yY:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?a=GYMCYx3bS-4:2PFgXqzW6yY:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?i=GYMCYx3bS-4:2PFgXqzW6yY:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?a=GYMCYx3bS-4:2PFgXqzW6yY:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe?i=GYMCYx3bS-4:2PFgXqzW6yY:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/mortgagenewsclips\/qTBe\/~4\/GYMCYx3bS-4\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,\u00a0 A friend recently asked what a Brooks Machine was.\u00a0 She was told it was some sort of underwriting machine or underwriting process, but we\u2019d never heard of it.\u00a0 Have any of you?\u00a0 Was someone pulling her leg? If you know about this, write us. Curious minds want to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77884","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=77884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}