Sabree Beneshour

Yesterday, the Fed said, let's maybe not.

So here's what they want to do.

One, a reduction in

Jim Parrott is a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute and a former senior advisor in the Obama White House.

Banks right now have to hold a certain size safety cushion of capital for all of their loans.

So some flexibility there might encourage banks to offer more mortgages.

The Fed may do a similar thing for mortgage servicing.

That's like the day-to-day management of mortgages and payments.

Sometimes banks will do that stuff on mortgages that were actually issued by someone else, but they still have to have a safety cushion for that, too.

We are very optimistic.

They are definitely moving in the right direction.

Michael Frattantoni is chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

You want both banks and non-banks to be active participants in this market.

He says the more entities offering mortgages, the better.

In New York, I'm Sabri Beneshour for Marketplace.

On Wall Street, shaking off those AI jitters.

We'll have the details when we do the numbers.

Uncertainty is just a fact of life these days, right?

And therefore of the economy.

It's affecting consumers, business owners, investors and vaccine makers.