patrick.net

One more thing. In my experience, it takes a pretty mean cat to go after a rat of any reasonable size. Count on vet bills if you use a cat. The classic ratters are terriers and/or mongoose (gooses/geese, I don't know).

Is the landlord's policy "no pets" or "no cats"? A mongoose would be incredibly chic, no?

Punchbowl - we are allowed our dog (named specifically in the lease), but no cats or other pets.

"very thinly disguised deposition"

Yep, that'd be about right. I worked for a small shop and it was the unwritten policy. If you lost them money, they would sue. If you made them money, they would sue. There is no winning.

Btw, I've heard if a rat can get his head through, then he can get through. We used to have skunks and that really sucked! :(

That is why I think it's invaluable to have a cat in residence. I've had my dumpster kitty for six years. Most places are feline friendly I've had no problem and they keep any invader critters at bay. I don't mind the deposit places charge it's nominals compared to the companionship. She's outlasted many a boyfriend.

There is a good article in the FT today (apologies if this has been posted before).

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0e9f6a24-bbd0-11db-afe4-0000779e2340.html

"The ABX index for bonds, rated BBB-, has soared about 300bp higher since last week's news, reflecting a perceived increase in risk, and pushing the index to a record level above 960bp, signalling an alarming rise in investor concern over the potential losses on 2006 mortgage bonds."

Can someone explain what the relation of the ABX index (ABX.he) is to MBS in general? Is it a good representation of the sub-prime tranche?

If I am understanding correctly, this index has moved from 6% to 9% (from an even lower basis over the last year or so). Is there somewhere I can see this plotted? (Yahoo finance doesn't seem to work).

C-span 2 is naming who are the top tax break recipients. It tells you who bought this current.administration it's so telling of the power of super wealth to buy favor. It's sickening...

DinOR,

No offense taken. My husband said if he were a landlord he'd never rent to lawyers (by which I think he means litigators and sole practitioner types).

Still, am I foolish to let people take full commisions? I think I’m not.

You get what you paid for. Trust your instincts.

Not advice of any kind.

Boston Transplant,

There are so many other posters here more qualified to address your question but since everybody's out to lunch I'll give it a shot.

Is it a good representation? Well NOW it is! The risk premium was never factored in properly before and now (I) believe it is correctly priced. The only link I do have is to my firm's internal bond desk and they're kind of sensitive about that. A little help? Oh btw, if I attend the webinar about CMO's I'll get CE credits! How timely!

I did take exception to the FT's depecition of "perceived increase in risk" though. Is this like when we have a guy with bloody finger prints all over the crime scene and we are bound by law to refer to him/her as "the alleged killer"?

depiction?

GC,

I think if your Realtor works hard for you and gets the best price (for you) then he's earned his fee. I'd rather pay the standard fee to someone willing to do hard work than a discount fee to someone who is going to try to unload the condo at whatever price so they can quickly move on to the next deal.

I read in the WSJ today that Fremont and a few other firms will not be offering piggyback mortgages anymore because the secondary market for them has dried up. This is anticipated to put quite a crimp in the sub-prime market.

Also, the girl in my office who is buying a place now is currently living in low income housing. Ugh, I'm just so annoyed. Everyone here is congratulating her for buying (at 7x her combined income).

Ok, sorry, rant over.

Thanks DinOr. I don't fully understand why the value of this (or other) indexes would not be publicly available. Why are they different than a stock or mutual fund? (I'm not complaining per se, just trying to understand why).

spike66 - we vaccinate our dog for lepto already, so he should be safe. I am going to be chasing our landlord to sort this anyway. Unfortunately he's out of town at the minute.

GC,

I saw my Realtor friend sell two neighbors' places. She went through the houses (which were both pristine) with a fine toothed comb. She had them do tiny repairs nobody would probably notice, but cumutively might have made the place look a little less amazing. She was inspecting all the work the handymen/painters did, and had one neighbor, who had antiques, remove them and stage the place. I asked her why, they were gorgeous 18th century. She said that believe it or not Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware is the look that sells in the $1-$5 million market. So, she spent a bit of time making sure that the places looked as amazing as they could.

Then, she brought over a lot of clients the first day that the places were ready to sell. She doesn't like open houses, but will have them if she has to. She said she's prefer to keep a list of Realtors/clients and what people have told her they are looking for and then deal directly with them instead of having open houses with people just milling through.

I guess I would look for someone with an eye for detail, who has done a lot of sales in your area, and isn't a lazy butt just reading magazines at open houses (my utter Realtor pet peeve. I'm not giving you 3% of ____ for reading the new Vogue). The attention to detail will probably result in a slightly better sale price, which translates into a relatively small increase for the Realtor, but a larger amount for you.

CB,

Sorry, I was just fresh out of analogies! :(

I "could" have been talking about the white guy in NC that was "visiting his parents" at the time of his wife's bludgeoning?

It's just that indices are supposed to give us some idea of what to anticipate. ABX.he didn't tank until well after all of this was made public. We just may bring StuckinBA over to the PPT yet!

The rats must like a nice warm engine bay in winter time... They are garage rats, maybe if you poison them in the garage, they will die in there. Or does the garage have plasterboard walls too?

Aren't there drowning traps also? hmmmm

If you think you've got it bad, have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LMxhc8WwGU
(US version to reduce culture shock...)

The three important urban rodents are Norway rats, roof rats and house mice. The Norway rat, also called the brown, wharf or sewer rat, can be found virtually everywhere humans live. They are attracted to areas that provide a wealth of hiding places and easy access to food. The roof rat, an agile climber, is more at home in the city, with its wires and tall buildings.

SF Environment: Rats and Mice

Thanks Portmgr. So are you confirming that, for example, the Vanguard Total Bond Fund (VBMFX) has no sub-prime as part of its portfolio? I've copied the breakdown of the fund below...

Distribution By Issuer (% of fund) as of 12/31/2006:
Asset-Backed 1.3%
Commercial Mortgage-Backed 5.0%
Finance 8.4%
Foreign 2.8%
Government Mortgage-Backed 35.1%
Industrial 9.0%
Other 0.2%
Treasury/Agency 36.3%
Utilities 1.9%
Total 100.0%

Distribution By Credit Quality* (% of fund) as of 12/31/2006:
Aaa 79.4%
Aa 4.8%
A 8.3%
Baa 7.4%

Shoot, it got cut off:

Distribution By Credit Quality* (% of fund) as of 12/31/2006
Aaa 79.4%
Aa 4.8%
A 8.3%
Baa 7.4%

I suck. "Less than" signs may be the problem...

Distribution By Credit Quality* (% of fund) as of 12/31/2006
Aaa 79.4%
Aa 4.8%
A 8.3%
Baa 7.4%
less than Baa 0.1%
Total 100.0%

If you think you’ve got it bad, have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LMxhc8WwGU
(US version to reduce culture shock…)

Interesting vid. So what breed of cat do you need to catch those critters?

The rats must like a nice warm engine bay in winter time… They are garage rats, maybe if you poison them in the garage, they will die in there. Or does the garage have plasterboard walls too?

If you think you’ve got it bad, have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LMxhc8WwGU
(US version to reduce culture shock…)

I'm not expert on rats, but wouldn't they go back to their nest before they die. I would think it would take a while before it killed them.

What if you bred a Monty Python killer rabbit with a Flemish Giant, you'll get something deadly to, ergh, rats.

How do you BA homeowners deal with cockroaches and termites?

How do you BA homeowners deal with cockroaches and termites?

Cockroaches are generally smaller in the Bay Area. These are dark creatures nonetheless.

Rats are fine. More toys for my cats. LOL

Portmgr,

O.K, O.K so you know all about MBS!

Right now the BA is sinking and suffering from an infestation of mutant rats! Uh... so can you help us out w/that or what?

Just kidding! :) Thanks and post often!

Mutant rats? We need mutant cats to counter!

Giant killer rabbits are obviously the way to go...

Giant killer rabbits are obviously the way to go…

How about a Were-rabbit?

How about a Were-rabbit?

Won't you just make a bunch of Were-rats?

The rats - if poisoned - would go to their nest to die - but where is that exactly? The walls, under the house or in the roof? And yes our garage does have plaster board.

Snakes, might work - but I hate snakes!

You should be nice to your landlords.

but I hate snakes!

I love snake soup.

I like snakes, both as food and as garden critters...as long as they're not capable of killing me. They're wonderful for all kinds of garden rodent problems.

Snakes are delicious deep fried, like very bony frog.

Aren't there good rat catching dog breed? It seems to me that large rats are about the size of foxes, so wouldn't a fox hound be a good ratter?

Aren’t there good rat catching dog breed?

Maine Coons. But they are cats.

Boston Transplant,

Here's a article from Grant's Interest Rate Observer (from the free section of the homepage). It's a pretty thorough discussion of CDO's etc.

BTW, Grant's is a fantastic (albeit expensive) publication

http://tinyurl.com/2tswdx

Enjoy!

Terriers are known for being Houdini's and are master diggers (under fences), I wouldn't want to chase after them all the time, it's bad enough when our dog decides to jump the fence (6 foot) - he even uses the trash can to help him over!