As nearly a thousand capital markets staff, managers, and vendors head home from Manhattan, united in trying to help borrowers, in a reflection of the times, it’s interesting how divisive the times are given the phone call this week between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Fox News noted, “Trump Confident Putin Wants Peace” versus nearly every other publication who wrote things like “Trump Hands Putin Win.” I mention this as it relates to the economy and mortgage rates, are there two ways to look at a rating cut? No one disagrees with the fact that the United States no longer holds a perfect credit rating with any of the three major agencies. Now we’re “behind” countries like Canada (51st state?), Australia, Denmark (owner of Greenland), Germany, even Liechtenstein. Does anyone care? Lenders will certainly care if it impacts U.S Treasury rates as the risk on these securities is a notch higher, which in turn impact mortgage rates (which are usually priced as a spread to Treasuries) and in turn impact borrowers. To put a positive spin on this, if there is one, the rating agency change was expected and already in the market. Nonetheless, if the Administration continues to move the dollar away from being the world’s reserve currency, we can expect more worldwide consequences, and perhaps not in favor of our borrowers. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Xactus and its commitment to the continued transformation of the mortgage verification industry. Pioneering a new class of technology, “Intelligent Verification,” Xactus is redefining how the industry originates and services mortgages. Today’s has an interview with Optimal Blue’s Mike Vough on ways technology is advancing the pricing and hedging space, specifically the granularity of pricing and timing of transactions, as well as how it can help companies save money from the beginning of the origination process.)