spreads increasing

Isnt it interesting - if you read the newspapers - all you see are doom and gloom headlines.
Subprime this, subprime that - writeoffs, job layoffs, slow down - all the words that cause people to 'turtle' - pull in their feet and huddle in their homes...a slow down is coming - it will be self fulfilling.
but as i look at the market an interesting phenomena is unfolding
the 5 year govt bond rate is approx 3.4% and the discounted 5 year mortgage rate is just shy of 6% - this is a spread of 2.6%
this tells me lenders are making huge profits - they say money is hard to get - and they have to pay higher yields to investors - but i dont see it my world - traditionally the spread should be approx 1.6% so i would think 5 year money should in the range of 5%...will lenders drop rates ?
I dont thinks so - they will drop the prime rate (variable or floating rates) and keep the fixed rates high.. then when the floating rates move up - people will panic and jump to the higher fixed rates..i saw this before in the 80's...what goes around comes around...

greygoose out.....