Bad credit

If you've been rabidly keeping up with the pending mortgage crisis in the U.S. and its global economic consequences, good for you.  I've been out on the town with princesses.

However, if you would like a lovely explanation of just what the hell the "credit crunch" is and why people everywhere are aflutter about looming defaults of thousands of borrowers, visit one of the top sites for U.S. news coverage: the BBC.

This little Q&A lays out nicely what the problem is and why it matters.  It's bizness news in English (no pun intended) for those who would like to be economically literate, but aren't masochistic enough to have an MBA. It's from September, but there are lots of links to news stories on the site if you'd like to know more.

Comments

[chip]

It does fail to mention one thing- that Congress largely got us into this mess by forcing lenders to extend loans to subprime borrowers. Bush stressing the virtue of home ownership didn't help either. Haven't heard him sing that song in a long time...

[hue]

Congress? Bush?

Sure blame to gov't. But the wrong part of the gov't. The Fed lowered interest rates (and printed money like there was no tomorrow) after the Nasdaq bubble and 9/11, which created a deluge of money that bank used to lend out (recklessly). Banks also created billions in derivatives from mortgages which made it worse.

The housing "boom" was inflated by low interest rates, not real economic growth. Now we have to work through the tech wreck and housing inflation and deflation. Lowering interest rates again is not going to solve the mess.

[Tim]

The evolution of the subprime mortgage market (pdf)

Many factors have contributed to the growth of subprime lending. Most fundamentally, it became legal. The ability to charge high rates and fees to borrowers was not possible until the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act (DIDMCA) was adopted in 1980. It preempted state interest rate caps. The Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act (AMTPA) in 1982 permitted the use of variable interest rates and balloon payments.

These laws opened the door for the development of a subprime market, but subprime lending would not become a viable large-scale lending alternative until the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA). The TRA increased the demand for mortgage debt because it prohibited the deduction of interest on consumer loans, yet allowed interest deductions on mortgages for a primary residence as well as one additional home....

Although the subprime mortgage market emerged in the early 1980s with the adoption of DIDMCA, AMTPA, and TRA, subprime lending rapidly grew only after 1995, when MBS with subprime-loan collateral become more attractive to investors....

During the 1990s, average credit scores tended to decline each year, particularly for ARM borrowers; but since 2000, credit scores have tended to improve each year. Hence, it appears that subprime lenders expanded during the 1990s by extending credit to less-credit-worthy borrowers. Subsequently, the lower credit quality unexpectedly instigated higher delinquency and default rates (see also Temkin, Johnson, and Levy, 2002).

TREASURY DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY MICHAEL S. BARR
REMARKS TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATTORNEYS GENERAL PREDATORY LENDING SUMMIT
PORTLAND, MAINE (2000)

When lower-income families went looking for home equity debt in the past, many may not have been able to find it due to their limited or poor credit history. With the rise of the subprime lending market, however, it has become relatively easier for these borrowers to access credit. As the Treasury-HUD report noted, the volume of subprime mortgage originations has increased nearly five times over in the last five years. As a means for expanding the availability of credit, the development of this market has represented a signal achievement for our economy.

[Tim]

Subprime Mortgage History