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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ild who wrote (18182)	8/30/2004 12:57:25 AM
From: ild	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Could Face Mortgage Turf Fight A Federal Home Loan Bank Seeks to Broaden Its Scope; Consumers Likely to Benefit By JAMES R. HAGERTY and JOHN D. MCKINNON Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL August 30, 2004; Page A2 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that dominate U.S. home-mortgage financing, may soon be facing more competition from the Federal Home Loan Banks. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is seeking regulatory permission to begin buying mortgage-backed securities from its members, the financial institutions that own the bank. The bank would hold some of the securities and sell others to a variety of investors. Investors in such securities receive the payments made by borrowers on loans that have been gathered into pools to make them easy to trade. The securities, developed in the 1980s, have allowed banks to funnel trillions of dollars from investors world-wide into home loans, fueling the American property boom. .......... Unlike Fannie and Freddie, the Seattle bank wouldn't be guaranteeing payments on the securities. It would merely buy securities made up of loans from its members. The bank would keep some of those securities and offer others either to its members or outside investors. online.wsj.com

To: ild who wrote (18182)	8/30/2004 6:45:56 AM
From: jrhana	Respond to of 110194

<The Fund also holds about 15% of assets in precious metals shares, for which the Market Climate remains favorable. Further economic weakness would be a substantial positive for precious metals shares, as the share valuations remain fairly reasonable, and precious metals typically fare best during periods of declining real interest rates and dollar weakness.> I wonder what is the maximum allocation of precious metal shares that Hussman allows for his fund. I imagine that 15% might be about it.