I am still wondering why the TARP funds are going directly to financial institutions instead of the federal government paying on behalf of borrowers in default. That way, fewer homes would have been foreclosed upon, the housing market wouldn't have taken such a huge hit, and the bureaucracy to administer it would have created plenty of jobs doing something positive.
Undoubtedly, the general public might have been uncomfortable with their neighbor's mortgage being paid by Geightner, but so were they outraged by the bailouts. At least this tact would have salvaged taxpayers' home values.
And yes, I am current on my mortgage.
Comments (3)
Not so fast. This is incentive for everyone to default on their mortgage...even people who are currently paying. Why should one family struggle to pay their mortgage when another decides to spend their money on other things and let the taxpayer, not Geitner, pay their mortgage? If this is done, I'll be happy to default on my mortgage too...and you can pay mine...thank you very much!
First of all, your credit rating would still suffer.
Next, you make it apply only to those in a specific situation in a past tense timeframe.
It's a trickle up philosophy.
We're already paying, we just have a lot less to show for it.
You pay my mortgage and I'll happily take a hit to my credit rating.
OK, so you only want to help the people who have been irresponsible before. So, the irresponsible people get a free home they should never have bought paid for by the responsible people who are struggling to pay for their homes and take care of their families. That sounds real fair.
The problem is all these bailouts were a mistake. Both political parties are to blame. Bush started them, Obama is continuing and extending them.
You are correct that the beneficiaries have been big people who have really screwed up big time. But they are / were big campaign contributors or otherwise connected.
Few of us regular folks will ever get anything meaningful from these bailouts except the bill. Sure, they try to buy our silence and acceptance with a few bucks that we will have to repay in the future several times over.
It seems to me we should have learned by now that all these programs are failures. It is time to stop them all and let the marketplace sort out the problems. People like Warren Buffett know how to do this.
Government involvement in GM and Chrysler has not helped, after taking many billions of our tax dollars they are still going bankrupt.