An insanely fun, relevant, and unexpected guest spot on No Surrender this week with Greg Sher, Erin Dee, MBA, and Coby Hakalir. We hit on everything going on in mortgage, no holds barred. Worth the background noise.

Click here or on the image below for a whirlwind on mortgage rates, UWM, first time homebuyers, Rocket, the Fed, Trump, Tucker Carlson, Banana Ball, and Super Bowl predictions.

The Last 6 Things Left That Suck Worse Than The 2026 Housing Market

KIDNEY STONES

A 3-millimeter piece of gravel will put a grown man on the bathroom floor calling for his mother. Women who've had both say it's worse than childbirth. Case closed. Moving on.

THE PRE-WARMED TOILET SEAT

Your brain immediately does the math on how recent. And somewhere out there, the person who warmed it walks free. There's no confident walk out of that stall. You leave a changed human.

GETTING HUNG UP ON AFTER 47 MINUTES ON HOLD

The music stops for two seconds, your soul leaves your body, and the saxophone comes back. And then it doesn't. "Let me transfer you" is corporate for goodbye.

TIPS NOW EXPECTED FOR ZERO WORK

"It's just gonna ask you a question real quick." You know the question, Tyler. 20% tip suggested for a $9 water I grabbed myself.

AMERICAN POLITICS

An approval rating in the teens and a reelection rate in the 90s. Name another business that pulls that off. An actual poll once had Congress losing to head lice, root canals, and cockroaches.

PRINTER INK COSTING MORE PER OZ THAN CHAMPAGNE

$8,000 a gallon. We nearly rioted over $4 gas. Ink's been doing this since the 90s and nobody's marched on anything. The printer itself is basically free. That's how dealers operate.

Jodi Hall’s vision becomes a beautiful reality.

The future of mortgage tech on display in front of a throng of mortgage lenders hungry for solutions at The Mortgage Collaborative’s ACT Tech Summit this week!

The value the lender attendees got this week was off the charts. Getting to see seeing so many different tech providers, rapid fire. All seeking to help lenders in different ways. How their platforms are evolving. Answering excellent questions from the judges on the real world application.

If you are not yet a TMC member yet, we need to fix that. It’s an organization dedicated in so many ways to making lenders stronger. At a time where it’s never been needed more.

Shoot me an email - I’d love to tell you a little more about the magic of the TMC family.

Was a total thrill/honor to get to serve on a panel today with two very good friends that I have a ton of respect for as humans and bad ass execs in this industry ... Christy Soukhamneut and Natalie Alexander.

We led an hour long discussion with a room full of the emerging tech providers that presented this week at The Mortgage Collaborative's (if you are not a TMC member yet ... why?? DM me!) outstanding act Tech Summit this week in Dallas.

The topic - "Who, What & How Lenders Are Buying Technology". Such a great back and forth discussion with these tech providers on HOW to sell into the mortgage industry and its decision makers. What works. What doesn't. What is resonating. And how to differentiate yourself.

What an event in Dallas this week! Incredible work by Jodi Hall, Mimi T. Paxson, CMB®, AMP, CML, Amy Boor, BIANCA BROOS and the rest of the TMC team. The lenders in attendance got so much GD value this week!

Budget deficit at highest levels since peak pandemic

Every states favorite summer blockbuster movie

Here come the UWM shareholder lawsuits

New iPhone and Apple Watch forthcoming

Anthropic prepping for October IPO - TWO TRILLION?

AUGUST

Aug 26 - NATIONAL DOG DAY
Aug 27-29 - Fed Jackson Hole Retreat (Warsh's first as Chair, and the one to watch after three dissents in July)
Aug 28 - FINAL NFL ROSTER CUTS FOR REGULAR SEASON!
Aug 29 - COLLEGE FOOTBALL RETURNS!
Aug 30 - US Open Tennis Tournament begins

SEPTEMBER

Sept 1 - JOLTS for July
Sept 4 - August Jobs Report
Sept 7 - Labor Day
Sept 9 - NFL SEASON KICKOFF, Seahawks host Patriots in the Super Bowl LX rematch (a Wednesday, not the usual Thursday)
Sept 10 - Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation reading
Sept 11 - Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation reading
Sept 13 - US OPEN TENNIS FINAL
Sept 14 - 78TH PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS on NBC, going up against Chiefs vs Broncos on Monday Night Football
Sept 15 - OMBA NIGHT AT THE BALLPARK! Columbus Clippers party deck outing! Tickets here!
Sept 15-16 - FOMC MEETING, rate decision Wednesday the 16th
Sept 19 - INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY
Sept 19 - Oktoberfest begins in Munich
Sept 20-22 - Uniquely TMC, Austin TX
Sept 21 - OMBA GOLF OUTING, The Golf Club of Dublin, 9:00 AM shotgun start
Sept 24-27 - PRESIDENTS CUP at Medinah Country Club, Snedeker vs Ogilvy
Sept 27 - MLB REGULAR SEASON ENDS
Sept 27-29 - MBA Compliance and Risk Management Conference, Washington DC
Sept 29 - MLB POSTSEASON BEGINS
Sept 29 - NHL SEASON OPENS, first year of the 84-game schedule
Sept 29 - JOLTS for August
Sept 29 - NATIONAL COFFEE DAY

OCTOBER

Oct 2 - September Jobs Report
Oct 7 - September FOMC minutes released
Oct 10 - mPowering You: MBA's Summit for Women in Real Estate Finance, Chicago
Oct 11-14 - MBA ANNUAL CONVENTION AND EXPO, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Oct 12 - Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day
Oct 14 - Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation reading
Oct 14 - Fed Beige Book
Oct 14 - MBA Tech Exchange, Chicago
Oct 15 - Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation reading
Oct 16 - Import and Export Price Indexes
Oct 16 - NATIONAL BOSS'S DAY (your move, direct reports)
Oct 17 - SWEETEST DAY (invented in Cleveland in 1922, so Ohio gets the credit and the blame)
Oct 20 - NBA SEASON OPENS, Knicks raise the first banner in more than 50 years
Oct 23 - WORLD SERIES GAME 1
Oct 27-28 - FOMC MEETING, rate decision Wednesday the 28th
Oct 30 - Employment Cost Index, Q3
Oct 31 - HALLOWEEN, on a Saturday, and the night a World Series Game 7 would be played

"The four most dangerous words in investing are: this time it's different." John Templeton

Until the next one,
Swerb
[email protected]