The National Association of Realtors (NAR) Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, was recently listed by USA Today as one of the experts to listen to when it comes to the housing market. After his most recent ridiculous statements after the largest slide in home prices since the Great Depression, I beg to differ.

As all NAR spokesman before him, Lawrence Yun isn’t paid to “forecast” the housing market. He’s paid to “spin” bad housing market data into buyer-motivating fantasy.

The housing crash currently in it’s infancy will soon grow up into an economy killing monster that the Federal Reserve has no weapon strong enough to defeat. A housing crash is unlike a stock market crash in that there is no easy way out.

Let’s take a walk back in time to the tech stock crash just 8 years ago and compare it to a housing crash.

Wells Fargo Mortgage is a subsidiary of a Federally chartered depositor bank which merged with Norwest Bank in 1998 an has become the second largest mortgage originator.

Wells Fargo Mortgage is part of the $40 Billion Wells Fargo Bank mega-company that once again has been a darling of stock brokers and mutual fund managers for over two decades. It is no accident Wells Fargo has had incredible stock price appreciation mainly due to their mortgage operation.

The Fed makes a rate cut and current mortgage interest rates rise. The current mortgage interest rate on 30 year fixed loan routinely inches up compared to rates before the cut.

Consumers are expecting the opposite to happen and yet it rarely does. This opposite market reaction is pretty consistently over the last few cuts.

(Note: This post was originally written as a response to Fed cuts in the fall of 2007 and contains important information on common reactions to Fed rate cuts. But if you are here only to see the 2008 Fed Cut Update…cursor down to the bottom.)

Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, was called to give testimony as to the legitimacy of his stock sales and other CEO compensation shenanigans before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Mozilo’s statement is more rhetoric and excuses including everything from the woes of the subprime meltdown to an “unforeseen” housing market crash, and very little on his mega-million dollar payday.

It was reported recently Mozilo decided a few months back he’d head-off any complaints about the nearly $150,000,000 he pocketed from his stock sales by announcing he’d “forgo” any retirement benefits the company still “owed” him