Obama's mortgage plan
USC professor Richard K. Green and Beacon Economics founder Christopher Thornberg debate the president's plan to spend $275 billion to decrease foreclosures.
February 27, 2009
Dust-Up
Putting off the real day of reckoning?
Today's topic: The streamlined approach to modifications that the administration advocates has the potential to avert far more foreclosures than the case-by-case approach taken by many lenders. Yet it also ignores personal debt loads, which are a critical factor in determining a borrower's ability to repay. Is there a better way to speed the process so that more needless foreclosures can be averted without simply kicking the foreclosure can down the road a few months?
February 26, 2009
Dust-Up
Why not just reduce borrowers' debt?
Today's topic: A high percentage of modified mortgages have re-defaulted, and some critics say that's because the modifications haven't been aggressive enough -- in particular, they haven't written down debt. The Obama proposal would not reduce a borrower's debt, either. Isn't that a problem?
February 25, 2009
Dust-Up
Untangling the mortgage-backed securities gridlock
Today's topic: Should the federal government protect loan-servicing companies that modify troubled loans against investor lawsuits, even if it means abrogating contracts between servicers and investors?
11:44 AM PST, February 24, 2009
Dust-Up
Obama's mortgage plan: What should taxpayers think?
Posted February 24, 2009
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