Tricky Task of Offering Aid to Homeowners

[Bozita]

Source: NY Times

April 6, 2008
CONGRESSIONAL MEMO
Tricky Task of Offering Aid to Homeowners

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and VIKAS BAJAJ
WASHINGTON — The task sounds nearly impossible: create a rescue plan for homeowners that will prevent a tidal wave of foreclosures, cost taxpayers as little as possible and avoid bailing out reckless lenders and greedy speculators.

At the same time, policy makers and financial regulators believe, any rescue effort should be flexible enough that if housing prices rebound, the government can recoup its costs, lenders can recover some losses and homeowners can still enjoy gains.

Tough as this may seem, some Democratic lawmakers are convinced it can be done. With housing problems dragging down the wider economy, they are eager to pursue what could become the most sweeping government intervention on behalf of homeowners since the New Deal.

While an initial, relatively modest housing-aid bill is likely to be approved Tuesday by the Senate, the main stage for a more ambitious plan is expected to be the House. The speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other House Democrats are pushing to aid as many as 1.5 million homeowners by expanding the availability of federally insured loans.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/business/06housing.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

[izquierdista]

1. What's tricky about it?

Just say "no"

"No" to the bankers who want to foreclose the minute the loan is late

"No" to the Wall St. slice-n-dice repackagers who want to sell them as securities.

"No" to the bond traders who want to buy them as junk and resell them to pension funds as solid gold.

Just say "no" to the people with the money, they are going to have to wait. Wait until the loan is repaid, maybe as much as 30 years to get their money back.

[penguin7]

2. Food prices were dropping hard in the great depression

Prices of everything are going through the roof, especially food prices. The Federal Reserve and the US government are on completely the wrong track. Bailing out Bear Stearns and homeowners and homebuilders and everyone else is going to go straight to raising grocery prices.

There is no way in hell deflation is any danger at all with the way prices are rising in the grocery store.

[Fridays Child]

3. Bailing out the credit industry is easy but aiding homeowners is tricky.

Uh huh. :eyes:

[Demobrat]

4. They could start by offering help to those owners who

actually LIVE in their homes. That doesn't seem too hard.

[PSPS]

5. The $750K McMansion owner who makes $25K/year deserves no help.

It's the easy credit lifestyle (no-doc loans) that gave us housing prices what they are today. They need to come down between 30 - 50% to become affordable. They will decline, of course. But the republicans are trying to prop it up just a little longer and push the correction off, making the eventual correction and its aftermath much harder than it would otherwise be.

[InkAddict]

6. And what about those that have gone down before they

decided to move their bloated butts into action on issues that this Admin and Congress refuse to address...outsourcing of American jobs and corporate misrepresentation for the importation of H1Bs and L1s, meaningful healthcare reform, and the misery the revised bankruptcy rules now cause...screw Madame Pelosi and screw the homeowners; if they want relief, let them walk away, start over...
If they give them bailouts, I'd like my cut of the Iraq occupation back! Here's what our primary breadwinner's been through over the last 38 years. I'm fed up enough to name names.

City of Cleveland - drafted (VietNam Era Vet)
Pentagon-Ft. Meade/Oakland at 184 days short/Ft. Knox - 10/67 - 10/69
Back to City - 6-1/2 years total
BC/BS-NE OH - merger w/Medical Mutual of Ohio/RIFd after 11 years (2 babies)

Penton Publishing - wrong fit - left @ 1 year

DataCorp - RIF'd @ 6 months - Lack of contracts

Local County government appointed civil servant @ 6 months - RIF'd after election

FULL YEAR UNEMPLOYMENT - 1987 - Relocated To Dayton, OH

CSC for WPAFB - Got the jump on a RIF @ 22 months/left

Carlson Marketing - RIFd @ 2 years due to relocation of IT to Minneapolis
Mom passes - While he literally visited at her deathbed, he landed the next gig;
The Berry Company - RIFd @ 2 years due to relocation of IT to Atlanta
Re-fi home
Keane @ Anthem BC/BS - Commuted Dayton to Cincinnati - RIF'd due to merger @ 6 months
Tactics @ Lexis-Nexis - RIF'd @ 3 months (outsourcing?)
PDR @ Cincinnati Bell - Commuted Dayton to Cincinnati - Left for safer (?) drive and more $
CTG - @ AEP - Commuted Dayton to Columbus-Y2K subcontractor to IBM Global Services - early completion of task - RIF'd @ 18 months

Excel @ WPAFB - Strange - paycheck for 3 months w/no actual assignment of <bANY/b> work - QUIT

Grandpa gets sick
LogTech @ WPAFB - RIF'd @ 6 months
Moved Grandpa to Dayton - recovery from sepsis - turned dining room into bedroom
CHC - Commuted Dayton to Toyota Headquarters KY Rif'd @ 4 months - Sick parent-ineligible for FLA
Saved home from foreclosure 1st time
ASCI - Commuted Dayton to Columbus Rif'd @ 6 months - Lost contract - Army PBXs in Germany
Moved Grandpa to apartment, then assisted living
CAI - Commuted Dayton to Columbus SafeLite Glass Rif'd @ 6 months-Early term. of client contract

TWO YEARS OF UNEMPLOYMENT 12/02 - 5/04
Saved home from foreclosure 2nd time

Ajilon @ BankOne - Commuted Dayton to Columbus - Rif'd @ 3 months
Dad passes -
The Aeon Group - Telecommuted - Rif'd @ 10 months - Reorg/Security Clearance Freeze
Saved home from foreclosure 3rd time

Relocated to Columbus

KForce @ AEP - Rif'd @ 8 months - Contractor reduction
SSI @ Nationwide Insurance - Rif'd @ 7 weeks - Reorg

Filed Bankruptcy and Lost Home

S3 @ Chase - BS Buyout - Rif'd @ 18 months

NEVER ONCE WAS THERE A NEGATIVE PERFORMANCE ISSUE!

Over those years, I've worked for HKFerguson, what is now Key Bank, JCPenney, P.I.E. Mutl Ins. pre-Larry Rogers, all in the NE Ohio area; CompuNet Clinical Laboratories, a private practice plastic surgeon, in Dayton, OH, and now a group surgical practice in Columbus. I took 6 precious years off after the bank to care for babies and 1 year off after the move to Dayton while attending school.

Nobody better dare to suggest we've been lazy or livin' the good life!