•  When rates dropped on December 17, we locked as many loans as we could before rates changed on an intraday basis early in the afternoon.  As typical, after such a sharp spike downward, rates bounced up and have been coming back down ever since.

•  Two components are driving the mortgage interest rates now:  the first is the purchase of mortgage backed securities (MBS) by the privately owned Federal Reserve and the nation's Treasury Department.  The second is the pathetic state of the economy and today in particular, the retail sale's number.  Bad news equals lower rates.

•  President-elect Obama is calling al-Qaida the "number one threat" to US security.  It's no different than what President Bush has been saying.  I say baloney.  Our current financial crisis is the number one threat and particularly the amount of debt the country is taking on.

•  New peculiarities are appearing on the underwriting front as lenders are conforming to the new realities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac demands.  No lender is closing a loan at the rates that everyone wants that can't be sold to one of the Mac and Mae siblings.  Now a borrower can't pay off existing debt with a cash out to qualify for a lower than normal debt to income requirement for a loan above $417,000 but below the new conforming jumbo limit of $625,500.

More than 8 in 10 of our nation's 100 largest corporations had subsidiaries in offshore tax havens in 2007.  A number of these same companies received federal bailout funding including insurance giant American International Group, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.

One of our favorite government agencies (if there could be such a thing) The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a government watchdog group, released a report yesterday saying that Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley all had more than 100 units in countries that maintain low or no taxes.  All three received money from the $700 billion TARP.

AIG, which received $150 billion had 18 subsidiaries.  JPMorgan Chase had 50 units and Wells Fargo had 18 units.  All three received bailout funds.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations estimates that "we the people", the US Government lose at least $100 billion a year in lost taxes due to the abusive tax havens.

When the federal government is running huge deficits and I hear people say they want lower taxes, all I can think is that we could all pay lower taxes as individuals if offshore businesses tax havens were abolished. 

You, as a consumer can take action now to let the companies that you patronage know how you feel.  Below is a list of companies maintaining subsidiaries in offshore tax havens.  By no means is it comprehensive:

Number of Units    Company

427                        Citigroup
273                        Morgan Stanley
152                        News Corp
115                        Bank of America
83                          Procter and Gamble
80                          Pfizer
70                          Pepsico
50                          JPMorgan Chase
49                          Caterpillar
18                          American International Group
18                          Wells Fargo
13                          General Motors / GMAC LLC
8                            Coca-Cola
3                            John Deere

Separately, the GAO said 63 of the 100 largest federal contractors maintain subsidiaries in 50 tax havens.  The GAO said the subsidiaries could be established in the countries "for a variety of nontax business reasons" and said having a business unit in one of the countries "does not signify that a corporation or federal contractor established that subsidiary for the purpose of reducing its tax burden."

Link to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  Link to the GAO's summary of the report.