Here’s What I Think About Countrywide, Saundra McFadden-Weaver & George Brett

Countrywide has gotten themselves into a pickle. So has just about every major lender out there. But with Countrywide having to tap into an $11.5 billion dollar line of credit it sends the message that the secondary loan market is in trouble, big trouble.

“The asset-backed commercial paper market has virtually shut down,” Friedman Billings Ramsey wrote in a research report. – Source: Kansas City Star

My opinion is that we are in for more turbulent times than I had initially understood. A tightening of lending standards wasn’t possible in a self-policing sort of way by the mortgage money market. So now, as a matter of economic principal the market is doing it for them. Another classic example of how free enterprise works. But it can be mean as hell.

If you are an “A” borrower you should still be okay. Make no mistake about it, there are still lenders out there that want your business. But follow this advice from yesterday’s edition of The Washington Post.

“What I’m telling people is that they should not shop around for the lowest rate necessarily,” Binstock said. “Go with the lender who you think is going to be there in the end.”

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Saundra McFadden-Weaver, a former Kansas City Councilwoman, was found guilty on mortgage fraud charges yesterday here in Cowtown. She still proclaims her innocence, naturally. But based on my experience with the real estate boom, especially where it pertains to “flipping” houses, I have no doubt she is guilty.

But is she being selectively enforced because she is a former Councilwoman? I think it doesn’t hurt. I’ve put together entire files and sent them to the Kansas Banking Commission without so much as a response from them that proved mortgage fraud by a wealthy “lender” located here in Overland Park. But I guess he didn’t have a name. And the victim was a barely English speaking immigrant. Not sexy enough, I guess.

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It was 27 years ago today that George Brett raised his batting average to .400 by going 4 for 4 against the Toronto Blue Jays. He finished the season at .390. Oh, so close. But George, the memories you gave this young man that grew up in Kansas City are priceless.

Thank you for giving Kansas City it’s greatest sports hero. You stand with our greats: Len Dawson and Buck O’Neil.