Born in Ukraine, Golda Meir said, “Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do about it.” (Doubtful anyone called her Goldy.) Her time as the Prime Minister of Israel ended in 1974, and since that time oldsters in our biz have seen the yield curve invert ten times, give or take. Bond traders are no longer fully convinced that the Federal Reserve will do one more quarter-point interest-rate hike, given the nervousness about First Republic and fear of an economic downturn; recessions have tended to lag yield curve inversions by 6 to 18 months. (STRATMOR’s current blog is “The Yield Curve Is Inverted: Should Lenders Care?”) Politics are also on trader’s radar screens: A failure by Congress to raise the debt ceiling and prevent a default on US government debt would result in an “economic catastrophe” that will push interest rates higher for even longer, per Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “A default would raise the cost of borrowing into perpetuity…Future investments would become substantially more costly.” I am sure they’ll figure out a way of kicking the can down the road. (Today’s podcast can be found here and is sponsored by LoanCare, a Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) division and award-winning developer of the most sophisticated mortgage servicing portfolio management tool, LoanCare Analytics, built to support MSR investors with a focus on customer engagement, liquidity, and credit risk. Listen to an interview with California MBA’s Susan Milazzo on the role of advocacy groups and IMB priorities for this legislative session.)