Deanna,
As to this home mortgage bailout, Lars Larson had Rick (Davis) from the McCain campaign explaining McCain’s proposal for using half of the $700 billion wall St full employment act.
As you are probably aware, only people that legitimately qualified for their loan would be eligible and the person must live in the home. The government would buy the loan from the bank at par, and write down the principle. Rick was making the case that over time the homeowner would pay the loss back to the government in interest paid. What Rick refused to admit is that the government is going to pay 3.5% for the money, and administrative costs will eat up the other 1.5%, so we’re basically going to subsidize the write down.
Obama’s campaign has come out against the proposal, and it’s easy to see why.
NINJA (no income, no job, no assets) and Liar loans would not be eligible.
It may be cheaper to subsidize these loans to prevent the looming recession from turning into a global depression– if that’s even possible.
It certainly won’t help my company– a global provider of construction equipment. The market dried up in July, inventory has been rising, and the plant I work at has seen 20% of production workers laid off in September. They have just announced another RIF– probably 30-50% of production workers and of those left, cutting production by half (one week on, one week shut down).
The question for us is whether the market improves by the end of 2009 or 2010.

He did go after Obama quite often, and only time will tell if it worked. Or if his strategy of (apparently) focusing on those ADD unconvinced voters will work.

Obama looks like such a disastrous president, that I’m giving McCain a free pass on his campaign’s strategy. I’d love fiery, perfect praise of classical liberalism, limited government, lower taxes. But I’m not going to get that speech from a John McCain, and we wouldn’t get that Presidency either.

The best advantage for us with McCain is that we won’t suffer four years of Obama. Perhaps the American people will take a good hard look at this cipher of a candidate with his *vast* history of far-left associations and policies, and, in the end, decide that those associations MATTER and those policies reflect what he will do. And reject all these empty promises that he’s making now as the lies that they are.

My God: How does he get away with saying that his policies will actually cut federal government spending? He could state that the sky is green, and the media and the TV-watching public would nod dutifully in agreement. I don’t get how he does it. There must be a brainwashing gene that I lack.

We’ll have to see how the next four weeks work out.

Given the state of mental health amongst Democrats, Deana, I am unsure whether even they can beat Sarah Palin on the “details”.

I understand that there is value in the banks/government (is there a difference anymore?) recouping at least some of their losses. And of course the more homes that are on the market, the more home values will go down.

I think I’m just in a destructive mood right now.

Brian, if we constantly save those who are stupid, greedy, and irresponsibility, who winds up learning the lesson?

Answer: The rest of us. The rest of us who were so stupid apparently to be careful, live within our means, and think twice before signing on to shady deals. What incentive do we have for continuing to live like this? Only that we know it is better to live up to our values than give in and join the crowd.

Deana

Let’s say the government picks up a $200,000 mortgage for 40% or $80,000. If the current value of the home is $140,000 and re-writing the loan to that amount will keep the homeowner in the home, the government still recoups its money when they sell the paper back to the private market some time in the future. The loss will be the devalued dollar paid back over time since we may own these houses for some time, and we’re borrowing the money from someone else to buy the mortgages.

Since the federal government has been the mortgage lender for America, since we now own the largest mortgage companies in America, if we don’t write the mortgages down, we’ll own a vacant house, which drives the price of housing down even further.

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/08/the-home-mortgage-buy-up-has-already-been-approved/

I’m not sure what Sen. McCain was trying to accomplish last night. He clearly was not speaking to conservatives (perhaps he’s overconfident that Gov. Palin has cemented the base). Was he addressing moderates? The half-hearted attempt to pin the majority (not all) of the blame for Fannie/Freddie on the leftists in Congress indicates to me that this is a possibility. Is it the left he’s after? $300 billion government mortgage buyout? I fear that’s the case. Sen. McCain (and Sen. Obama for that matter) were trying to be all things to all people.

The thing I find most appealing about Gov. Palin is that she, even with all the constraints and handling, comes across as herself – a person with a principle and ideal beyond the results of the next election.

You hit on the head what I’ve been thinking about for days with regard to Sarah Palin.

All of these liberals who are so disgusted with Sarah Palin like to talk about how she doesn’t know the details. It is irrelevant to me whether someone can recall thousands of facts. What is more important is their character and their beliefs about government. I want to know what their guiding philosophy is.

It’s much more revealing than what we see coming out of these debates.

Deana

Perhaps McCain and Biden can work together and come up with a plan to force banks to reduce principal. That will really help the mortgage market.

This just makes me so mad!!!! What about the vast majority of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, who were RESPONSIBLE about their finances from the get-go? Why are we bailing out absolutely everyone who demonstrated ignorance, greed, and/or irresponsibility???

Bookworm, you were right a week ago. This country is going to hell in a handbasket.

I’m rapidly getting to the point where I almost WANT Obama to win. Just let it go and let America have four years of liberal leadership and watch happen what most of us on this blog knows what will happen.

It isn’t like the choice we have before us now is between a lying, radical, socialist who seems to surround himself with people who hate America and a conservative.

Aaarrggghhh! I’m so frustrated!!

Deana