djc
12-07-2007, 02:01 AM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119699795437616770.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
This holiday season, families will reflect on the past year and make new goals and resolutions for 2008. But for the two million homeowners who face foreclosure over the next year because of the subprime mortgage crisis, their New Year's hopes rest not with themselves, but with policy makers in Washington and the investment community on Wall Street.
This is a time for Samaritans, not Scrooges. The enormity of the unfolding crisis is clear. Unfortunately, the remedies to the subprime crisis that have emerged will only slow the threatened economic tsunami, not prevent it.
The Bush administration's proposed five-year freeze on home-loan rates, while a step in the right direction, doesn't go far enough. The plan, unveiled yesterday, simply doesn't help most of the families facing a foreclosure threat. Of the 6.5 million subprime borrowers in total, only about 750,000, or 12%, would be helped, according to some estimates. They are the homeowners who are up-to-date now with their loan payments but would fall behind and risk foreclosure when the loan resets in the coming year.
It's time for another U.S. government-sponsored Marshall Plan. But instead of reconstructing Europe after World War II, today's Marshall Plan for mortgages would restore homeowners' and investors' confidence and dreams.
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Note the author. He believes your tax money should be used to bail out these people who decided to buy stuff they can't afford.
Somehow, these people are victims, however those of us who are fiscally responsible who didn't buy what we can't afford may be penalized by artificially high home prices and be forced to not own.
Next, we'll bail out those people with high credit card debt. Obviously, it was Visa's fault for giving Jeb that 10k limit.
Good call!
This holiday season, families will reflect on the past year and make new goals and resolutions for 2008. But for the two million homeowners who face foreclosure over the next year because of the subprime mortgage crisis, their New Year's hopes rest not with themselves, but with policy makers in Washington and the investment community on Wall Street.
This is a time for Samaritans, not Scrooges. The enormity of the unfolding crisis is clear. Unfortunately, the remedies to the subprime crisis that have emerged will only slow the threatened economic tsunami, not prevent it.
The Bush administration's proposed five-year freeze on home-loan rates, while a step in the right direction, doesn't go far enough. The plan, unveiled yesterday, simply doesn't help most of the families facing a foreclosure threat. Of the 6.5 million subprime borrowers in total, only about 750,000, or 12%, would be helped, according to some estimates. They are the homeowners who are up-to-date now with their loan payments but would fall behind and risk foreclosure when the loan resets in the coming year.
It's time for another U.S. government-sponsored Marshall Plan. But instead of reconstructing Europe after World War II, today's Marshall Plan for mortgages would restore homeowners' and investors' confidence and dreams.
---
Note the author. He believes your tax money should be used to bail out these people who decided to buy stuff they can't afford.
Somehow, these people are victims, however those of us who are fiscally responsible who didn't buy what we can't afford may be penalized by artificially high home prices and be forced to not own.
Next, we'll bail out those people with high credit card debt. Obviously, it was Visa's fault for giving Jeb that 10k limit.
Good call!