I saw this article and I like it. I like it very much. Here's a snippet of the article below - a teaser. Read it in it's entirety. This is the type of solution I can work with. I'd be in line for a 3.5% refinance...heck yes. And...also see this - let's not let these bankers mess with us...and don't you wish a person could orate like Jackson today?
"The emerging bipartisan consensus—the original bailout, plus a few new provisions concerning oversight—is the epitome of “trickle down.” Wall Street made bad decisions, but Wall Street is too big to fail, so we must give them $700 billion, so that the rest of us can avoid a recession. Got that? The Wall Street message is, “We screwed up, so give us money, otherwise, you’ll be sorry.”
Amazingly, that argument—top-down piracy at its most naked—is carrying the day in Washington. If one ever needed proof that the government is the tool of the ruling class, this is Exhibit A.
So what’s the alternative? Mallory Factor, a South Carolina businessman, has a better idea: “Bail out homeowners, not lenders,” he says. “Any qualified buyer who wants to buy a house,” he says, “could buy one at a guaranteed low interest rate, of, say, 3.5 percent. And any qualified homeowner who wants to refinance could get the same rate.” If that happens, Factor predicts, “There would be a flood of liquidity into the system, as people bought houses again, which would also help reduce the housing-stock overhang. In addition, as people refinanced, all these instruments, such as collateralized mortgage obligations, which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have choked on, would once again start performing. And that would save the banks and many investors. It would save the banks and investors by saving homeowners and homeownership.” In other words, trickle up, not trickle down."
Maybe it's just me - but freaking out is useless. I think like always we need to be calm and that's the only way to make a wise choice. This country has weathered tougher times than these... chill.
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Seriously, can we get congress to read your blog? There are even clauses in the 'package' for 'golden parachutes' for the higher ups, which makes me madder than sin. They take away millions of people's homes, yet get to keep theirs? Not right.
Funny...
I'm not arrogant enough to think I'm the only one with these thoughts... I just figure... good ideas need more people talking about it. ;-)
I had a conversation with some friends months and months ago when our area was seeing a lot of people foreclose on their houses. She made the observation - astute. That some people aren't meant to be homeowners. Some are meant to be renters. That's the market - it will always have that... balance, yin yang... yada yada. It doesn't make one way right or the other not - it's just a diff't life.
That's why I think it was a big mistake for lenders to offer bad interest rate loans to people who couldn't afford it, and those same people bought way over their heads.
When it comes down to it... both sides are at fault... isn't that always the case?
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