Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Housing Rescue Plan

The housing rescue plan put forward by the Obama administration confuses me to no end. A recent article published in USA Today tried to highlight some of the areas to be addressed by the plans. Their analysis, however, was vague at best though through little fault of their own. The administration is also being decidedly vague on any particular parts of the plan. Sure, they lay out basics to help some 9 million homeowners who are deemed to be in trouble. They even plan to throw $75 billion directly at the problem and almost $200 billion more toward Fannie and Freddie. How these plans will ultimately play out, however, is not addressed (let alone how they will eventually be paid for). Besides the issue of whether or not it's too little too late I'm concerned with just how fair a plan like this can possibly be. It doesn't address anyone who followed sensible rules and decided to avoid living so far beyond their means. Instead, people who took on too much debt probably thinking it would somehow magically go away are getting that wish fulfilled. Too much debt was a big part of the problem leading up to this economic meltdown, and now it seems we're OK with handing out "get out of jail free" cards to anyone who made irresponsible choices. This package may help a few people out in the short term, but it will keep mortgage rates too low and the cycles of shouldering too much debt will be allowed to continue.   

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