Economies and strategies impact various groups differently. Remember Mervyn’s, Montgomery Ward, or a dozen other large department stores that are no longer? Saks Fifth Avenue is now rumored to be potentially joining them. Residential lending is obviously impacted by the slowing economy: if you want lower rates, a government shutdown is one way to negatively impact the U.S. GDP. Interest rates were a topic at the MBA Annual, and thousands of lenders and vendors have headed home. (Nadia Evangelou, Senior Economist & Director of Real Estate Research at the NAR, is the guest on today’s Big Picture at noon PT.) Vendors, including Byte Software with its fabled baked goods, have packed up their booths. Next year it’s off to Chicago. Where will Freddie and Fannie will be then? The FHFA sent out a note saying that Bill Pulte is donating his salary to wounded veterans. It is a nice gesture, but prompted one reader to write, “Let’s say the FHFA Director makes $300k a year. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less. Bill Pulte is worth $100 million. If you invest $100 million at 3 percent per annum, the yearly income is $3,000,000, or $8,200 a day. Context is good.” (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by nCino, makers of the nCino Mortgage Suite for the modern mortgage lender. nCino Mortgage Suite’s three core products nCino Mortgage, nCino Incentive Compensation, and nCino Mortgage Analytics, unite the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process into a seamless end-to-end solution embedded with data-driven insights and intelligent automation. Hear an interview Click n’ Close’s Ian Kimball on how originators prioritize strategic growth initiatives, operational execution, and go about market expansion.)