“Two lawyers walk into a pub. They order a couple of drinks and take subs out of their brief cases. They begin to eat. Seeing this, the angry pub owner exclaims, ‘Excuse me but you cannot eat your own sandwiches in here!’ The two look at each other, shrug, then exchange sandwiches.” Legal news leads off the Commentary today as Optimal Blue and nearly 30 originators were hit with a lawsuit alleging price collusion impacting millions of borrowers, noting these lenders’ spreads were 2.68bps (49.2 percent somehow) higher than others and that mortgage payments surged 54 percent from 2022 to 2025. “The sooner you fall behind, the more time you’ll have to catch up.” For originators who don’t want to fall behind, yesterday’s Commentary discussed the countdown to Halloween, and thank you to Rate’s Jennifer N. who wrote, “In the mortgage world, Halloween is celebrated by Licensing and Compliance folks as, ‘Renewal Eve’ as NMLS opens the renewal window on November 1. All licensees should make sure their CE is done before then so they can renew ASAP and avoid lapses in licensure!” While we’re on rules and regulations, do the number of working IRS employees correlate with the chances of being audited? Some hope so, as 50 percent of IRS employees are expected to be furloughed. The shutdown will be a topic on today’s “The Big Picture” at 3PM ET features Meredith Whitney, “The Oracle of Wall Street,” of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group. She will discuss “Stuck in Place” dynamics, CRE stress, and whether policy can help unlock supply. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Truework, the only all-in-one, automated VOIEA platform that helps mortgage providers achieve up to 50 percent cost savings with an industry leading 75 percent completion rate. Today’s features an interview with Cotality’s Thom Malone on home price trends across various regions of America and what that portends for affordability as we move towards 2026.)