Mortgage rates head down, Australia heads toward banning Google

GOOD DAY FOR: Refinancing, after analysts predicted that the Federal Reserve’s decision to buy up to $750 billion more in mortgage-backed securities could push the U.S. mortgage rate down to 4.5 percent, its lowest rate since the 1940s. The Fed has now agreed to buy up to $1.25 trillion in the securities, in a bid to breathe life into the housing sector. “It’s a big bullet the Fed’s firing here,” said Weiss Research real estate analyst Mike Larson. “The Fed is kind of going all in.” (Bloomberg)

BAD DAY FOR: Googling down under, after moves by the Australian government to enforce a 2007 law that bans online child pornography and other illicit content could end up making Google and many other Web sites illegal. As written, the law regulates not just content, but links to outlawed content, too. (The Inquisitr)

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up