Comments on: End of the beginning http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2008/03/21/end-of-the-beginning/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:20:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: gs http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2008/03/21/end-of-the-beginning/#comment-302740 gs Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:25:50 +0000 http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2008/03/21/end-of-the-beginning/#comment-302740 <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080321/state_pensions_mortgages.html" rel="nofollow">Here's</a> another straw in the wind:<blockquote>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The subprime mortgage crisis has yielded at least one benefit for states: Mortgage-related investments have become so cheap that they are luring some pension funds to buy. Retirement systems in South Carolina and Pennsylvania are nibbling at the securities, betting that they have been beaten down so much that the ones with good credit ratings could yield strong returns later. ... But the buying this time is very tentative, and may not presage a broader turnaround in these securities.</blockquote>I don't have any confidence one way or the other whether this indicates formation of a bottom, but IMHO the very tentativeness of the buying might be perversely encouraging. Here’s another straw in the wind:
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The subprime mortgage crisis has yielded at least one benefit for states: Mortgage-related investments have become so cheap that they are luring some pension funds to buy.

Retirement systems in South Carolina and Pennsylvania are nibbling at the securities, betting that they have been beaten down so much that the ones with good credit ratings could yield strong returns later.
…
But the buying this time is very tentative, and may not presage a broader turnaround in these securities.

I don’t have any confidence one way or the other whether this indicates formation of a bottom, but IMHO the very tentativeness of the buying might be perversely encouraging.

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