Pop Quiz: Including Homeowners in the Bailout?
Do you think homeowner relief from foreclosure should be included in the mortgage bailout package? ( polls)
Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with BrownstonerDo you think homeowner relief from foreclosure should be included in the mortgage bailout package? ( polls)
Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with Brownstoner
“can we do just the bare minimum to keep the economy afloat? And can we please learn our lesson already and next time not vote for a guy whose best credentials are his very public belief in Jesus and a direct phone line to God?”
Whether or not you can do the bare minimum depends on the type of problem.
If the problem is like a dam that is about to break in 1,000 places, then, no, you cannot do the bare minimum. You must completely reinforce the entire structure. Fixing only 400 or 500 or even 800 places would be pointless because once one of the remaining weak spots broke the whole dam would get washed away anyway. You’d be better off not trying at all.
As for your second query, as long as the democrats refuse to believe how stupid a very large percentage of the american voting public is and learn to focus on appearance rather than substance, we will be condemned to suffer under whatever idiot the republican party decides to nominate.
I know I will sound a little ridiculous after making quite a few oversimplified statements here, but can we please not oversimplify this situation? If might feel good to try and stick with what’s “moral” and not play favorites, but that will only exacerbate a pretty dire situation, as far as the taxpayers are concerned. So here’s another oversimplified and non-nuanced statement from me: can we do just the bare minimum to keep the economy afloat? And can we please learn our lesson already and next time not vote for a guy whose best credentials are his very public belief in Jesus and a direct phone line to God?
If you’re going to bail out one pack of frauds, you really ought to bail out the other.
The banking CEOs who got us into this were no more financial “experts” than the yahoos who accepted these loans in the first place. I’d say let them both burn, but I think that the overall cost would actually be higher in the long run. So grumpily, I say bail ’em both out. No playing favorites.
“Anywho, what upsets me about the whole situation is the complete inability and unwillingness of the Americans to live with the consequences of the decisions they had made. We are, indeed, a nation of whiners.”
What are those consequences?
That’s the $700,000,000,000 question, isn’t it?
Slope, I wouldn’t need to lie – just quit my job (or get fired), re-negotiate my mortgage terms, then find a new job. Granted, none of that is easy, and quite honestly I wouldn’t go through all that trouble. And as far as my credit score, in 7 years, or however long it takes to clear up one’s record, banks will be chomping at the bit to give me a mortgage and a credit card, since the economy will likely be in another upswing/bubble and once again they’ll have more money than they know what to do with.
Anywho, what upsets me about the whole situation is the complete inability and unwillingness of the Americans to live with the consequences of the decisions they had made. We are, indeed, a nation of whiners.
So if you cannot afford your mortgage despite it being fixed at 5.85% should we bail that person out?
If I took out a loan and then bought a new car, boat and jacuzzi, should I be bailed out for being fiscally irresponsible?
What would reasonable parameters be?
This debate is academic. If the bailout is not passed we are a few days from financial meltdown.
After it is passed, you can all continue to debate its many perverse consequences.
“Liars and cheats will definitely be able to get their hands on some of that $700,000,000,000.”
You betcha – which why we especially need oversight on this, and to not give Paulson a blank check.
HJB,
The proposal being considered is to give bankruptcy judges the power to rewrite mortgage terms. So if you want to doctor up your finances so it looks like you can’t pay the mortgage, submit that to a federal judge and take the chance that (a) you will be found out and held in contempt, or (b) you will be believed, the court will grant your bankruptcy petition, you will get the mortgage rewritten, and you will have the constraint typically placed on bankrupts, not to mention the effect on your credit, go ahead. I think the system being proposed for mortgage relief will have more external and self-regulating constraints than the ensuing debate suggests.