Both Dick Van Dyke and Mel Brooks turn 100, Dick in less than two weeks and Mel next summer. 100 years is a long time, and it’s a big number. Despite faster economic growth than peers, the U.S. faces rising deficits and debt levels above 100 percent of GDP. If this impacts our debt ratings further, look out. Political gridlock and reluctance to enact meaningful tax increases or spending cuts echo challenges seen in the UK and France, where governments struggle to satisfy voters, lenders, and economic needs simultaneously. Recent market jitters, such as the spike in Treasury yields in April, serve as warnings of potential debt-market instability if political inaction persists. For something more constructive to think about for lenders, today Marcia Davies, COO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, joins L1 for one of her last interviews before retirement, and tomorrow’s The Big Picture at 3PM ET features Mike Yu, CEO of Vesta, for a fast, insightful conversation on the future of loan origination systems and what it means to rebuild the LOS from the ground up. Mike shares the Vesta origin story, why legacy systems have reached their limits, and how a true platform approach built on open architecture and modern APIs is reshaping how lenders design their tech stacks. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Two Dots, whose conversational screening agent replaces manual underwriting with a streamlined, end-to-end process that reduces risk and fraud while securing safer borrowers, increasing profitable loan volume, and lowering underwriting overhead. Today’s has an interview with U.S. Bank’s Shelly Kobb and Ohio Housing’s Tom Walker on how Housing Finance Agencies work, the challenges they face in expanding affordable homeownership, the policy and political developments shaping their future, and the innovations and outreach strategies needed to keep their programs sustainable, effective, and accessible.)