With money borrowed from our children?
On the surface, North Carolina’s plan to use $159 million in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to help homeowners facing foreclosure gets high grades.
If the government habitually bails out overextended homeowners,
is it financially reasonable to overextend?
So far, however, the federal bailout initiative’s actual impact has received only mixed reviews. Critics say only a small percentage of participants have benefited.
If some consider insanity to be doing the same thing repetitively,
expecting different outcomes,
why would the Greensboro News & Record’s Editorial Board
want to want to repeat the same strategy?
...A congressional oversight committee reported that for every family TARP helped stay in its home, 10 more ended up in foreclosure. It called for greater accountability. So, it’s still not certain whether the $600 million going to five states with high unemployment rates will help.
The program includes:
The program includes:
-- “Rescue Payment Assistance” designed to help homeowners who have missed payments and are at-risk of foreclosure.
If the government manipulates the real estate markets
to stimulate demand by artificially lowering housing supplies and foreclosures,
after too many borrowers acquired too much unsustainable debt,
could intervention reward some borrowers, homebuilders, appraisers,
lenders and securitizers,
of whom many percieve as causing the problems in the first place?
-- “Partial Payment Assistance” to help unemployed homeowners not eligible for loan modifications get up to $15,000 in forgivable loans.
If the government selectively subsidizes some homeowners,
with money borrowed from our children,
could those looking to purchase homes, cars and energy,
be obliged to pay higher prices and taxes to fund the subsidies?
-- “Modification Assistance” to help homeowners seek more affordable payments or reduce what they owe.
Who is more foolish,
the few who lent and borrowed more than could be repaid,
or the many, including our children, living within rational financial boundaries
being penalized for other’s recklessness?
“Transitional Assistance” to help people move to residences they can afford.
Does the Greensboro News & Record’s Editorial Board
want to penalize financially stable households
by rewarding unfortunate and/or poorly managed families
with borrowed money our children will have to pay back?
Unemployed applicants must show that they’re actively looking for work but can’t find it or are pursuing training that will help them find jobs. And targeted counties with unemployment rates of 12 percent or higher will be eligible for additional aid.
Does government intervention delay real economic recovery?
Preventing home foreclosures is critical in an economic recovery. A wounded real-estate sector drags down the rest of the economy. By reducing the number of foreclosures, troubled neighborhoods stabilize.
Does the Greensboro News & Record’s Editorial Board
want to bail themselves out
of their mistaken support of profligate government borrowing,
by pledging newly created debt
to be handed down to the unaware of following generations?
Given TARP’s dubious track record, doubts linger. Yet this latest initiative still has potential to succeed."
Does the Greensboro News & Record’s Editorial Board
want to stabilize the real estate market in the short term,
to defend their political legacies and financial interests,
regardless of long term consequences?
Greensboro News & Record Editorial Board
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly
is to fill the world with fools.
Herbert Spencer
Coined the phrase “Survival of the fittest”
Does the Greensboro News & Record Editorial Board
want to temporarily stabilize the economy,
by borrowing from the relatively younger and their children,
who may not reap the prosperity of their parents?
is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.
Margaret Thatcher
Is a more stable real estate market and local economy in the short term,
in the best interests of the Greensboro News & Record?
Statements by high officials are practically always misleading,
when they are designed to bolster a falling market.
Gerald M Loeb
Don't steal from my kids
George Hartzman
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