Seems like a reasonable plan to me ! http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=5&issue=20080331 Best plan I've seen Washington make in 8 years imho. Let the specs fry but buy Mom and Pop some time to catch up.
Trouble is... if we (tax payer) are FORCED to bail out everybody, the $USD will suffer huge dilution and our wealth will take a big hit. And the evil doers will have run off with the money and gotten away with it. Can't say I'm in favor of that.
Excellent Commentary ................................................................................ This is a very vivid means of postponing losses Japan style.... Risks were taken.....not countered.....and the system thereby heavily diluted.... The dilution being born by the real payers..... And what one should be aware of is.... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123487
May be the best idea floated yet, but it is still terrible. You are in fact, risking tax payer money, to bail out morons who bought more house than they could afford, or refinanced to buy cars, vacations, etc. Essentially, the taxpayer would be taking risk so that a mechanic making 70k per year can stay in his 700k house. You see that every where in the bubble areas. Collectively, there are a few million homes like this, and they are not speculators. They should not be in these homes however. The gov shouldn't do anything. Let the markets work it out quick and ugly. Otherwise you will extend the mess for years.
The one problem with that is that housing prices NEED to fall and this will prevent that. If you look at housing prices vs rents and income, you see they are still well above historic levels. The only way for this to end is for prices to come down some more. What good does it do to support prices that are above what most people can afford?