Wednesday 27 August 2003

Increasing Mortgage Interest Rates and the Economy

Is the Economy Really Improving? Or better, are jobs being created? Thanks to increasing mortgage interest rates, Douglas Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association thinks that 100 to 200 Mortgage Brokerages will disappear in the next 2 to 2 1/2 years, resulting in the loss of 100,000 jobs.

This is on top of the thousands of jobs that will be lost thanks to call centers closing if the telemarketers "do not call list" is implemented. Additionally, Microsoft has hired salesmen to hawk software that allows companies to run more efficiently and thus lay off employees.

The stock market may be going up, GDP may be rising as well, but more than one headline has called this a "jobless recovery." As our economy continues the transformation from a manufacturing base to whatever the future holds, we need to put our heads together and figure out how to cope.

Are we going to be a in a mortgage bubble that busts sometime in the next decade causing economic havoc?