Research Zeitgeist: Second Quarter Top Posts
Not surprisingly, the fallout from the subprime mortgage meltdown dominated Research Recap’s ranking of Top Posts during the second quarter. Indeed, the rippling outwards of concerns about other forms of debt was evident in several of the most popular research reports featured.
Taking the honors was a May 23 Standard & Poor’s review of subprime, Alt-A and Prime Jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities indicating the “2007 vintage” will be the worst ever in terms of delinquencies. S&P said the delinquency rate on Alt-A securities, for example, is four times as high as the 2006 vintage was at the same age.
So-called “Alt-A” mortgages are supposed to be just slightly more risky than prime, but our number two post, a June 2 report from Fitch Ratings, found that recent Alt- A borrowers share more characteristics with subprime borrowers than they do with prime borrowers.
Making matters worse, an April 21 post from Barron’s found that lenders in Florida were slow to address the growing number of delinquencies. The post was particularly interesting as the bleak outlook for Florida real estate came from guest columnist and real estate broker Mike Morgan.
Worries about the corporate debt market were evident in the fourth-place post, a June 10 Moody’s report that the global junk bond default rate doubled in the first five months of the year and is expected to rise for another year or so.
In fifth place came Ernst & Young’s April 23 report finding the US in danger of losing its position as the most attractive nation for renewable energy, especially with the production tax credit expiring at the end of this year. It was followed by Audit Integrity’s May 2 report on stocks with questionable management integrity, based on their corporate governance rankings.
It was back to debt at number seven, a March 27 CreditSights report finding warning signs in increasing credit card delinquencies. This post also earns the honors as the most popular since Research Recap’s launch last summer.
A June 26 report from Forrester Research documenting the growing influence of bloggers on consumer behavior came in at number eight, and the International Monetary Fund’s December 2007 report examining the role of hedge funds in the subprime crisis stayed on the charts at number nine.
Rounding out the top ten was another Forrester report from June 20 on how video will dominate the world in the next few years.
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