James Rhyne, Consultant and Partner at Thematix Partners, just discussed the role of information asymmetry throughout the mortgage creation process. There are two asymmetries, said Rhyne. First, homeowners are not s sufficiently informed about their real estate purchase. Investors also did not have proper information to value the later securitized bundle of mortgages. Rhyne said that these asymmetries need to be addressed both by incentivizing the production of information by those that have it and by encouraging those who need the information to become better informed. The government has been attempting to do the former through regulating what information banks must disclose both with regard to mortgages and financial products. However, says Rhyne, there has yet to be much movement in the area of encouraging consumers to become better informed.