Lou Barnes

Contributor

After five years as Marketing Manager of a mountaineering clothing and equipment manufacturer and retailer (a great way to enjoy your 20s), Lou Barnes built 45-broker, two-office Spruce Real Estate in Colorado from 1978-83, spending most of his time guiding the firm through extremely high interest rates. The world of money was more fun for him than real estate, and Barnes sold Spruce and joined investment banking ranks for five years as Managing Partner of RCM Government Securities, a broker-dealer working on the early flow of mortgages to Wall Street and their related derivatives. Two of those years involved work on the heart of the savings and loan meltdown -- one of the "consultants" commuting to Texas, Arkansas and other Southwestern garden spots (fortunately, he spoke the language: his family were Okies), he was asked to figure out how deep the hole was going to be. He wrote one of the earliest accurate estimates of the ultimate cost in 1986, and was one of the first to address the necessary asset workouts. Some people thrive in a career on airplanes, and Barnes was not one of them. In 1988 the homebody began another career as a mortgage banker in Boulder, just in time to catch the terrible peak of foreclosures afflicting the greater "Oil Patch" and "Savings and Loan Belt." The firm, Boulder West, survived and thrived as a small mortgage bank -- very old-fashioned, strictly "A" paper, and based on long-term relationships with Realtors and past clients. Even with that strength, Boulder West closed in 2009, and Lou and many of his colleagues joined far-larger Premier Mortgage Group. As a marketing tool and for sanity, Lou has written a weekly column on the financial markets every Friday for 20 years.

It's the recovery, stupid

Commentary: It's time to name names

Jan 22

Punishment in hardball form

Commentary: Bankers need dose of reality

Jan 15

Economy: Bad is the new good

Commentary: Some creative spinning in 'recovery' tale

Jan 8

Approach 2010 with curiosity, not dread

Commentary: Will new year bring action or political herding?

Dec 29

Where did our net worth go?

Commentary: 'Flat beats panic' in 2009

Dec 22

Economy draped in TARP failure

Commentary: 'Fat cats' have it their way

Dec 18

Hard data and hard questions

Commentary: Feds' foot is on the credit hose?

Dec 11

The underwater soap opera

Commentary: Poking holes in new fed housing plan

Dec 4

Tentative thanks in a turkey economy

Commentary: A wake-up call for 'plain talk'

Nov 27

Tight lending remains elephant in room

Commentary: Bernanke's speech casts shadows on recovery

Nov 20

No comfort in new economic data

Commentary: Tight credit overshadows home affordability

Nov 13

All roads lead to low rates

Commentary: How do we measure 'recovery'?

Nov 6

Low prices not helping housing

Commentary: Find a cure for consumer 'paralysis'

Oct 30

Give the buck a break

Commentary: 'Dollar fear' is inflated

Oct 23

Pig-in-a-python economics

Commentary: Housing market damage deepens

Oct 16

Who is in charge here?

Commentary: Tax credit, loan mod talk falls short

Oct 9

Wheels of stimulus spinning in place

Commentary: Plow through this 'Great Recession'

Oct 2

Beware undertones in Fed-speak

Commentary: FHA a scapegoat in 'moral treasure hunt'

Sep 25

Too many numbers, too little credit

Commentary: Economy is on Fed, Treasury 'life support'

Sep 18

Progression in a recession?

Commentary: Now we must 'un-borrow'

Sep 11

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