Such bull shit. We have to "restore" responsibility, we need to be "fair"....so we fix the consequences of those who might not have been responsible. They will learn no lesson. Those who have been responsible get nothing...and learn the lesson for the future that there is no need to be responsible. Does not bode well for the future. The responsible get punished. Irresponsible saved.
you are not beiong realistic. he is talking about helping out those who did everything right'got mortgages they could afford,had jobs,and made their payments. now they lost their jobs,cannot find another job and are at risk of default. problem is,they can't even downsize because no one else can buy their home. its a catch 22. stop making such broad comments that are'nt realistic.
He has done some things I am not happy with, but there are no easy answers. Criticizing sure is easy though.
What about letting the housing market correct itself? These people that Obama would save should become renters instead. Spending money that isn't yours and meddling with business sure is easy though.
It's nice and sweet to help that group of folks. However, a serious moral hazard is being created by not offering some sort of assistance to the rest of homeowners, who by the way are all partaking in reduced values of their homes as well, it's just impacting them in different ways. Those homeowners should also be receiving some sort of cushioning from the govt. as well (i.e. forced reduction of mortgage rates across the board) if the others, including the irresponsible, receive a pass. This would result in eliminating the moral hazard, as well as have a broad impact on housing reducing everyone's rates. Ask someone you care about (since it doesn't sound like you do own with a mortgage), who owns their home with a mortgage, has equity that has gotten eaten into, and is on time with their payments, purchased around the same time as the guy down the block, how they feel about the guy down the block receiving a pass, a reduction in their payment, or principal, etc, while they continue to have to pay their full payment. I didn't hear any mention of that when real estate returns that their discounts must be amortized back in or something like that. It's a free call option for that guy.
So your vote is to do nothing. Fair enough. There is a good chance that supply-siders and Greenomics have dug a hole so deep, nothing will prevent the inevitable depression. I think many on Wall St. and in government would disagree with you, though, and would insist eliminating fear and instability is of the highest priority. In other words, the methods are immaterial, just restore confidence. But like I said earlier, there are no easy answers.