Yogidad

Proposed Homeowner Bailout Plans are Loaded With Problems

First: Enjoyed the article and made good points. A complete discussion of the failings of the candidates' proposals would be interesting and helpful.
Also, although I like Lok Sang Ho's general notion better than the candidates', I don't think that the plan would work either. I.e., Deliver an offer based on an appropriate appraisal standard to those owners and/or banks for viable properties. A certain segement of the foreclosure market could be assisted I guess but I don't think you could get very far with alleviating the crises. The same segment would probably voluntarily refinance if reasonable rates were offerred in general and penalties and prohibitions were eliminated.

Fannie and Freddie Did Not Cause This Crisis

The article said nothing about Democrat or Republican. Insiderman your comment only illuminates you and not one of the relevant issues in the article (i.e., the percentage of responsibility for the bubble attributable to Fannie and Freddie). Part of what caused the agency failures in this crisis is a lack of reasonable public discussion focused on issues placed in a proper heirarchy. These get entirley lost as commentary is devoted to rewriting the past and, in this case, rewriting an article that made a truely legitimate attempt simply to be logical and analytical. It is well known that Fannie and Freddie did not start the subprime securitized/derivative... market. The subsequent entry into that market was not necessarily a significant structural event in the chain. Ask yourself these questions: Why is blaming anyone but a member of your party so important? Why is convincing yourself and the public of the benefits of a blanket ideaology more important than fixing a world wide financial crises? Finally, how can you ignore the widely disseminated information that Fannie and Freddie were manned by members of both parties and Fannie and Freddie successfully lobbied both parties?