Tuesday, April 19, 2011

100% mortgages in Kenya.1st signal of the real estate buble

Firstly, a 100% mortgage is when a bank lends you 100% of the mortgage loan you require. Usually, the mortgage loan will be pegged on the value of the property you are buying. In essence, the bank is betting that the property you are buying will rise in value so that should you default on the mortgage, it can realise the full value of the loan.
The bank has now become a property speculator rather than a keeper of your deposits.

Not clever banking and is a big part of the why the West has just had a huge credit crisis.

Hope Ndu'ng'u at CBK will slow down his policy of being supportive of the banking sector and "take away the punch bowl" (to quote Mervyn King) before banks/Kenyan economy binges on lofty credit.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Replace foreign aid with economic migrant quotas

Remittances are now the largest foreign exchange earner in many developing countries. Fact.
So-called advanced economies are currently undergoing their most challenging economic times. Fact.
There is an ongoing, racial-tinged and tortured debate on how to tackle illegal immigration in the West.
Hopefully you can see the link I am drawing out.The west and other advanced economies are currently seeking to reduice their leverage by either government expenditure and or raising taxes where they can. To do so, they are seeking to cut back on ineffecient expenditures. As accurately described by Dambisa Moyo and others, there is none more inefficient than foreign aid to developing countries.
In almost all nations, immigrants to the West/advanced economies whether legal or illegal pay their way. That is they work, pay taxes and proportionately don't make use of public services more than the locals. Crucially, they send a significant portion of their income to their mother countries and so fulfil the trickle-down effect that most of the foreign aid is supposed to do. Simple really, the money they remit is reaches the hands of those is rural areas and even in slums.

The West can and should cut ineffective foreign aid/loans to developing countries and should replace it with smart programmes that allow graduates from developing nations to work for 2/3 years in developed countries. It is not an original idea. The UK has a discriminatory policy in place that gives 2 year working visa to all New Zealanders/Australians and South Africans (white) of under 30yrs of age.