I don't know about you, but whenever I've had too much to drink and find myself loitering around a mortgage company's computer server, I feel like unholstering my .45 and opening fire. I guess I'm not alone: WOW

Jefferies and other Wall Street analysts have recently pointed out that the effective rate of interest on all US mortgage debt outstanding (about $11 trillion - more than US Treasury and corporate debt combined) has barely budged in recent years at just over 6%. Like a kid looking through the window at candy, originators know this, and that the overwhelming number of households, on average, are paying the same rate they have for quite some time, and funding conditions "for the largest and most important part of the US economy - the consumer sector - continue to be bad. And if a borrower can't refinance, and lower their monthly payment, they tend to hunker down and put the money into savings - which often time is invested by banks into Treasuries. And of course this serves to push rates down even more.

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