Nationalization Nation: Washington Goes for the Stockholm Solution

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Solution is to get home prices down or inflate income

Since 2000 average US home prices have risen over 200% while wages have been close to flat. This now means that if we start qualifying folks income versus the mortgage requested, most will not get a mortgage. Either we have to encourage wages and most goods/services to become inflated - big time, or we need to encourage home prices to fall back to where they should have been. Bailing out folks from their bad mortgages will not get the home prices down. Yes there will be more people walking from their homes as they drop even more - but many more new home buyers will start to enter the market. And yes it will take years no matter what approach is used. In the late 1970/early 80s we inflated our way out. Bad for those on a fixed income like myself - but not many choices.

Ray James of IA @ Oct 10, 2008 01:04:01 AM

PEOPLE, LOOK AT THE HATRED OF THE LEFT AND THEY AREN’T IN CHARGE OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH YET! WHEN THEY ARE, THEY WILL USE THE POWER OF THREE BRANCHES OF THE US GOVERNMENT TO EXPAND THE HATRED, AND LIKE ALL THE BEST MARXISTS THEY WILL SHUT DOWN CAPITALISM, BUT WHO WILL THEY COME AFTER FIRST?

ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH THEM WILL BE TARGETED. FULL POWER OF THE US GOVERNMENT WILL BE USED TO IMPLEMENT THE LIBERAL FASCIST AGENDA, LOOK FOR CONTINUED GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION ALL IN THE NAME OF HELPING THE POOR AND NEEDY.

BUY YOUR GUNS NOW BEFORE THEY ARE OUTLAWED, YOU WILL NEED THEM TO DEFEND YOURSELF FROM MEXICAN GANG VIOLENCE WHEN FOOD DEMAND OUT STRIPS SUPPLY IN THE CITY.

FIRST OPPOSING POINTS OF VIEW WILL BE BANNED, THEN GUNS, THEN THE GOVERNMENT AGENTS OVERLOOKING THE CAPITALIST CORPORATIONS THAT CAN’T BE TRUSTED.

YOU THINK I AM KIDDING, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS NO IDEA HOW TO LEAD, THEY WILL BE UNABLE TO MOUNT ANY POSSIBLE CHALLENGE AGAINST THE DEMOCRATIC FASCISTS, AND WILL NOT COME TO POWER AGAIN IN OUR LIFE TIME.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IS OVER BECAUSE THERE IS NO LEADER AMONG US TO CHALLENGE THE LIBERAL HYPOCRISY EXCEPT MAYBE SARAH PALIN

of @ Oct 10, 2008 00:01:32 AM

We The People

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802)

Connie of WA @ Oct 09, 2008 15:01:42 PM

Lollipops too?

To Dan: Why not give more handouts to all those who "misstated" their assets to get mortgages they could not afford? After all the money will only come from renters and other no-goods, as well as those who honor their obligations. Will your beneficiaries be satisfied if only 75% of their principal is forgiven?? Why stop with mortgage contracts -- why not bail out any contract which you later regret? Let us remember all those who voted for such schemes if they are on the ballot next month.

ed of WI @ Oct 09, 2008 14:10:07 PM

You can keep people in the homes they are in. Or you can foreclose a bunch and sell the properties at much lower prices---with banks and government taking the losses.

It is INVESTORS who will buy the glut of foreclosed homes, making them into rentals for the people who got kicked out. Hardly a great thing for America.

Here is a solution. Reduce interest to 4% on all (all) home mortgages for owner-occupied homes. Tell people to pay as much as they can monthly by taking $3 off the mortgage for every $1 they pay on principal. Banks get money. Many more people stay in homes. Investors do not become bandit vultures. Banks write down their over-valued loans slowly. Remember, you heard it first here.

Dan of @ Oct 09, 2008 13:07:27 PM

Whatever became of the FHA?

Was that not supposed to be the protecter and enabler for working class people to buy affordable housing and become homeowners and get a piece of the American dream?

HillbillyBill of TN @ Oct 09, 2008 12:34:07 PM

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U.S. News business reporter Matthew Bandyk examines the issues, people, and debates that shape the nexus of political and economic life in the nation's capital.

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