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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (27300)	9/9/2003 5:46:39 PM
From: Mannie	Respond to of 89467

Washington Mutual warns on mortgages By Greg Morcroft, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 5:15 PM ET Sept. 9, 2003 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Mortgage giant Washington Mutual warned Wall Street analysts and investors Tuesday that it will book a loss on the sale of mortgages due to rising interest rates and problems with record keeping. "In the current interest-rate environment, we expect that gain from mortgage loans will be significantly lower than in prior periods due to the decline in applications," CEO Kerry Killinger told an investment conference in New York. "This effect has been heightened in the current quarter by operational challenges in our mortgage-banking business. Several process and systems issues contributed to imprecision in our tracking of loan commitments." Seattle-based Washington Mutual (WM: news, chart, profile) said it's identified the problem and put remedies in place. Killinger offered no further details. The company's shares closed off by 2.1 percent to $38..81, after falling as low as $38.01 earlier in the session. Washington Mutual also said it's still closing a lot of loans made before a recent spike in interest rates, while acknowledging that new applications are off about 40 percent from July. There's also been a jump in customers applying for adjustable rate loans, up to 44 percent in August from 27 percent in June. Diversification noted Killinger said the losses will be partially offset by gains from its hedging portfolio, adding, "Our balanced business model has other parts which performed very well in this interest-rate environment." Specifically, he said there will be a large recovery in its mortgage servicing rights operation in coming periods as fewer people refinance mortgages, and, its retained portfolio will increase as more homebuyers select adjustable-rate mortgages in a higher-rate environment. He also said the company will book gains on its sale of mortgage-backed securities and bonds of government agencies as it makes room for new adjustable-rate mortgages in its portfolio. Regarding Washington Mutual's third-quarter earnings, Killinger said it's company policy to only provide an outlook for its yearly earnings, and to only update it during quarterly earnings conferences. "Unless we see significant reason to change the outlook, we'll do an update of EPS guidance during quarterly conference call. There's no need to deviate from that policy right now," Killinger said. During the company's last quarterly earnings call in April, Washington Mutual confirmed its previous outlook that the Reuters Research-compiled consensus analyst estimate for 2003 earnings of $4.37 per share was achievable. Also Tuesday, California-based Countrywide Financial (CFC: news, chart, profile) said average daily applications for mortgage refinancings fell 29 percent, to $1.8 billion. "Interest rates have increased roughly 130 basis points since reaching historic lows in mid-June, signaling the apparent end of this unprecedented refinance boom," Stanford Kurland, the company's chief operating officer, said in a press release. Countrywide's shares lost 63 cents to trade at $70.83. Greg Morcroft is New York news editor of CBS.MarketWatch.com.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (27300)	9/9/2003 6:22:44 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Bush Lays Off Congress; will Outsource Lawmaking to India* /By Jay Slupesky/ Citing the growing cost of running the Federal government and the need to cut costs in order to reduce the budget deficit, President Bush announced today that he was laying off all 535 members of Congress and transferring lawmaking operations to a legislative support center in Bangalore, India. "Hey, outsourcing is the way to go these days," said Bush at an impromptu news conference where he announced the decision, adding, "the American people want to see less government waste. Since every one of those ex-Congressmen had a salary of $150,000, this move will cut our costs by over $80 million per year, and that's not even counting what we'll save on health insurance and retirement plans." Sources indicate that the Indian replacements will be paid approximately $250 per month. The outcry from the newly laid-off Senators and Representatives was swift.Ex-California Senator Diane Feinstein said, "This is absolutely outrageous. How can a bunch of replacements over in India run Congress? What do they know about filibusters and committee hearings?" As she was being escorted out of the Hart Senate Office Building by U.S. Capitol Police officers, Feinstein complained that the newly-terminated lawmakers were only given 10 minutes to clean out their desks and leave the building. "I think it's a great idea," said Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking from a secure undisclosed location. "The American people were fed up with that expensive do-nothing Congress which didn't give the President everything he asked for. Our new Indian replacements will be much more cooperative to the President, which is what we all want." Asked whether the outsourcing may be unconstitutional, Cheney noted, "That's up to the Supreme Court to decide,but they never pay much attention to the constitution anyway. To them it's a 'living document' that will be different every day. The new members of Congress seem thrilled with the attention they are receiving. Speaking from the offices of All-India Legislative Support Centre Ltd. in Bangalore, new Mississippi Senator Ramchandra Shektar Gupta told reporters, "The Indian people are very hard working and we will do our best as U.S. Congressmen and Congresswomen. And we are going to have some fun too. Just think: we have $2 trillion of the American taxpayers' money to spend!"

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (27300)	9/9/2003 8:33:41 PM
From: crdesign	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

'guys like you make me want to kick dogs' Jim, Please don't kick any Dogs Cats, mmmmmmmmmaybe I could turn a blind eye. but please spare the dogs. ;) Love, Timmy

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (27300)	9/10/2003 5:13:15 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

guys like you make me want to kick dogs ... which goes to show the kind of man you are, I suppose. For your information, I am a woman. I have never insulted you, nor has my colleague whose comment I relayed. In return, you have gone from "whose ass he must have sucked to get that job" to now "kiss my ass". I find your petty little fights, your insecurities about your market calls, your insults to bearers of contrary opinions, and dick-swinging, chest-thumping calls to "Be a man!" pathetic. You know what? I don't care one bit about H&S patterns. All I know is that if even I know about it as someone who has never cared for technical analysis, there is probably other indicators to look at. That was the comment you chose to ignore - that there were other indicators to look at, that the H&S pattern by itself was not conclusive at this point. And I don't care one bit about your style, mister. You need to take a long hard look into the mirror and come to terms with this pleasure you seem to be getting from spewing insults to strangers on internet websites.