Wells Fargo said 72 percent of the mortgage applications it received in the third quarter were for refinancings, up from 39 percent in the same period in 2008, the last before QE began. The bank said it received $188 billion in applications, more than double the $83 billion in the three months ending September 2008. Spokesman Ancel Martinez declined to comment.
‘Getting Crushed’
The boon for the banks rankles David A. Stockman, a former Michigan congressman and director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan.
“The Federal Reserve is in the tank for Wall Street,” said Stockman, who headed auto-parts maker Collins & Aikman Corp. “That’s why the 1 percent are thriving on financial speculation while savers, workers and retirees are getting crushed by zero interest rates and inflationary food and energy costs. It’s damn unfair, and it doesn’t work either.”
Bernanke said last week that it’s important to remember the real people with real troubles behind the economic statistics tracked by the central bank.
“It’s very important to try to keep in mind the reality of unemployment, of foreclosure, of weak wage growth, etc.,” Bernanke said. “So we always try to do that.”