BOSTON — Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman–Elect David Kittle went back in time for his opening remarks to attendees at the MBA National Secondary Conference and Expo here last week. All the way back to 1934.

"Two kinds of forces assist in recovery: natural and artificial," he said. "There are those who believe that natural forces primarily govern and that recovery is more in spite of, than because of, artificial forces.If people insist on demanding a remedy for the evils we are suffering today, the only sure response is: Time." Those lines were from the opening address delivered by Chairman W. Walter Williams at MBA's Annual Convention in 1934.

Kittle then compared the "artificial forces" set in place then, like the formation of the FDIC and the Farm Credit Administration and compared present times and current efforts to rein in a spiraling housing market. "Just like today, lots of measures were being debated and passed," he said. "What Mr. Williams couldn't have known in October of 1934 was that much of the recovery was already underway….So why am I talking about 75 years ago when there's so much going on right now?To point out that it is very hard indeed to see exactly where you are when in the middle of such turmoil."