ATLANTA-At the MBA CREF12 Conference’s openingsession Monday morning, major factors affecting the industry weredistilled down to two familiar topics, both gaining steam as theyear progresses: the economy and the upcoming presidentialelection.

In his opening remarks, David Stevens,president and CEO of the Mortgage BankersAssociation, started off by contrasting how conferenceattendees—which he said numbered 2,300—run their business versushow the political machine at work in Washington, DC runstheirs.

“You make real decisions, you meet real deadlines, you have realcontracts—you live and die by the rules of your business, butWashington doesn’t,” he told the crowd. “Short term thinking isreally commanding the rules of the road in Washington. The businessworld functions on real deadlines.” He said that this was the casefor both sides of the political aisle. “As custodians of capitalyou don’t have the right to stall,” he went on to say.