Pile Of Crap

More dim economic news out today on housing and consumer confidence. The Case-Schiller index hit a new monthly and yearly decline record in home prices for January, and consumer confidence is still in a deep, deep hole at an index of 26. It's looking more and more like Helicopter Ben's efforts to re-inflate the housing bubble is failing due to all the holes in the balloon.

“It’s wrong to place too much hope on what the Fed would be able to accomplish in pushing rates lower,” says economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “There’s a limit to what they can realistically do.”

That’s apparent in what some call the inevitable bounce back in rates since the Fed's announcement at the March 19 FOMC meeting that it would increase its planned purchase of GSE and MBS debt as well as finally begin buying longer-term Treasuries.

The yield on the 10-year note went from roughly 3.00 percent down to 2.50 percent, but has slowly climbed back to around 2.75 percent. Thirty-year mortgage rates, which track the 10-year yield, have moved accordingly.

“Rates are historically low, but the expectation is that interest rates should be much lower than they are,” says Manhattan Mortgage Company CEO Melissa Cohn.

Then again, Nouriel Roubini actually sounded almost...positive today.

Things might only be somewhat horrendous instead of biblically disastrous.