Inflation Pressures Are Easing but Rate Cut Forecast Remains Uncertain

The New Year is beginning where the old one ended -- with uncertainty about when – or whether – the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates.

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“The Hustle” sounds like a 1970s disco dance, but it refers to what the Department of Justice (DOJ) describes as a “particularly brazen” fraud designed by Countrywide Mortgage, for which, Bank of America, which purchased the erstwhile mortgage giant, is being sued.

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Financial industry regulators are becoming increasingly concerned about abuses in the reverse mortgage arena. Consumer advocates have been warning for years that these loans pose huge risks for seniors, because of inadequate and often misleading disclosures and abusive underwriting practices, but federal and state regulators “are documenting new instances of abuse as smaller mortgage brokers, including former subprime lenders, flood the market after the recent exit of big banks and as defaults on the loans hit record rates,” the New York Times reported recently.

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With the too-close-to-call election still a few days away as this update was being written, and the East Coast struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy, interest in the current batch of economic reports had dimmed considerably. But the focus on one issue ─ the “fiscal cliff” — has remained laser sharp, and the concern about it is widespread.

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The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHA) has unveiled a plan for revamping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a near-term goal of making them more efficient and a long-term goal of reducing the housing market’s reliance on the federally-supported mortgage financing giants.