``Who in the world that qualifies for a refinance (guidelines and equity ain’t changin’ any time soon) will be at a rate high enough to be in need of a 6.25% 30 year fixed. The answer is nobody.''

" This speech is Gary Gensler's to Markit's Outlook for OTC Derivatives Markets Conference on March 9, 2010."

" Senate negotiators are closing in on a deal to create a $50 billion trust fund from fees on large financial firms that may include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. and be used to wind down failing institutions, said a Senate aide and two people familiar with the talks."

"Sixteen months after they were seized to prevent their collapse, the companies remain wards of the state, running a tab that has now exceeded $125 billion in what has become the single costliest component of the federal bailout for the financial system."

" One can only hope that the rapid increase in money supply, both domestically and globally, will result in a different outcome than that suffered by the Japanese. I would not like to see the U.S. endure a protracted economic struggle. However, if we look specifically at the actions of our commercial banking system, we find little comfort."

" The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and American International Group Inc. agreed to shoulder as much as $450 million in losses tied to the insurer’s Japan real estate bets as part of the sale of a division to MetLife Inc."

"Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a new motion in its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) that would force the Obama administration to release documents related to political contributions made by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to the FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might possess documents responsive to Judicial Watch's initial FOIA request; however, the agency claims it is not obligated to release such documents to the public. Judicial Watch maintains that since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now wholly operated by the federal government they are subject to FOIA law."

Yield spreads on agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) narrowed to historic tights in recent months as prepay speeds increase at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The factors pushing the trend are a combination of the federal program to buy agency MBS, solid demand from private investors, and a move at Fannie and Freddie to buy out delinquent loans, all which accelerate prepayment speeds.

``. Although the 2010 peak in the Alt-A / Option-ARM reset schedule doesn't occur until July, with a much larger peak in mid-2011, a small initial round of resets is already in progress, having started about November of last year. I would expect that if we are indeed at risk of a second wave of mortgage defaults and credit strains, it will show up first as a surprising jump in 30-day mortgage delinquencies in the data we see over the next 2-4 months. I do not expect quarters upon quarters of uncertainty. It may take longer to observe the full effect of continued mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, but we are at about the point where the data would depart from the market's "all clear" expectations if credit pressures are likely to resume with force.''

The concept of entropy is one of the most useful terms for understanding just about everything. While it has its origins in natural law – thermodynamics, specifically – the concept holds true pretty much across all closed systems.

In the simplest of terms, every closed system will ultimately degrade toward a state of maximum entropy.