Mortgage Bailout: “Bad Idea” That Could Delay Economic Recovery
The Senate is poised to pass a foolish mortgage bailout for certain borrowers. Robert Samuelson explains in the Washington Post why a similar House proposal by Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is a “bad idea” that could “perversely delay the housing recovery” if it enacted. The bailout proposal has “two glaring problems: one moral, the other economic.” And it reserves the “privilege” of a bailout “for an estimated 1 million to 2 million homeowners who are the weakest and most careless borrowers,” while excluding responsible “people who made larger downpayments.” The American public opposes mortgage bailouts in public opinion polls, but that doesn’t stop politicians from pandering to whiny, irresponsible borrowers who claim it’s hard to pay their bills, who are invariably portrayed sympathetically by bleeding-heart journalists at places like ABC News.
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6 Responses to “Mortgage Bailout: “Bad Idea” That Could Delay Economic Recovery”
Posted by: Senate Bill Will Cause, Not Prevent Foreclosures, and Rip Off Taxpayers | OpenMarket.org - 04/07/2008
[...] borrowing that have “proven notoriously inefficient.” We earlier criticized Congressional mortgage bailout proposals and subsidies to left-wing housing groups. The American public opposes mortgage bailouts. [...]
Posted by: Senate Foreclosure Bill Bails Out Irresponsible Tycoons, at Taxpayer Expense | OpenMarket.org - 04/08/2008
[...] expense. We earlier criticized even more costly mortgage bailout proposals by Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd, noting that most Americans oppose mortgage bailouts. addthis_url = [...]
Posted by: Senate Passes Bad Mortgage Bill, House Seeks to Make It More Rotten | OpenMarket.org - 04/10/2008
[...] bill in its current form, because they want to make the bill much worse, by adding costly and economically-destructive mortgage bailouts, even though most citizens oppose mortgage bailouts. Left-wing lobbying groups stand to make a [...]
Posted by: Congressman Frank’s Mortgage Bailout Pays A Disastrous “Ransom” | OpenMarket.org - 04/23/2008
[...] his interview with The Economist, Congressman Barney Frank undermines the case for his much-criticized mortgage bailout bill. He admits that such bailouts create serious “moral hazard” problems, [...]
Posted by: Congressman Frank’s Mortgage Bailout Pays A Disastrous “Ransom” | OpenMarket.org - 04/23/2008
[...] his interview with The Economist, Congressman Barney Frank undermines the case for his much-criticized mortgage bailout bill. He admits that such bailouts create serious “moral hazard” problems, [...]
Posted by: Chertoff: Eff You Doable Economic Stimulus! « Um. - 06/03/2008
[...] To be fair–you know, like objective and shit–our system isn’t all that much better: Like, sure, private citizens can sell whatever they’d like, set the price, sit back and watch the dollars flow in–but when stuff goes all wrong, there’s not much that the government can do about it. Still, sometimes they try. And then the duders who seem most interested in preserving the system like to get all worked up about what they no doubt see as unwanted encroachment. [...]
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