Purchase Only News Today

If you’re in Chicago, the newest attraction is “the rat hole.” Here in Denver, besides the cat I saw in the airport yesterday being walked on a leash, one attraction is the National Ice Core Lab, where, you guessed it, ice sample cores from all over the world are kept for research purposes at temperatures even colder than those outside. It is around this time of year when plenty of people think about vacations or moving to warmer places… Like Phuket in Thailand. In 20...

Here in Chicago, there are several restaurants that are “the place” to have afternoon tea. Tomorrow is the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. (And no, I was not working on a trading desk slinging MBS back then.) In those days, news traveled via word of mouth, rare newspapers, sermons, personal letters, or broadsides. People had time to think about things and contemplate. Nowadays, there are plenty of places from which to glean financial news. Unfortunately, the press is not...

“My dog is really worried about the rising price of groceries, with a can of dog food now costing $3. That’s $21 in dog money.” As I travel and speak with originators, besides the regulatory environment being a concern (the latest example being the CFPB suing Freedom Mortgage yesterday), the cost to produce a loan is still a problem, and for some it is about to worsen. The last MBA’s study calculated that total loan production expenses (commissions, compensation, occu...

Some things in life are fleeting, like a frosty glass of rose, enemy troops singing Christmas carols in the trenches during WWI, or the time when lenders couldn’t hire people fast enough because rates were at 3 percent. I mention this because Krispy Kreme’s Strawberry Glazed Donuts, a flavor not seen in two years, is back today but only through Monday, in participating Krispy Kreme shops nationwide. Fleeting for donut aficionados. (Who says this commentary never has anything newswo...

When I grow up, I want to own a place at the beach. It turns out that if I’m not too picky, and don’t mind being within a mile of the surf, I might be able to swing it. Here are the “Cheapest Places to Own a Place at the Beach in the U.S.” People living there had better pay their property taxes, but it’s no surprise that more than $14 billion in property taxes go unpaid each year, according to the National Tax Lien Association (who knew there was such a thing?!...