Americans Need Debt Relief …
by Danny SchechterLink to article
… Is Obama Brave Enough to Make It Happen?
Taking care of the victims of predatory rip-offs is only fair. Human rights must come before property rights.
Stung by the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the abandonment of his health care initiative by members of Congress and fearful of a political backlash, President Obama may have realized that he himself is not ”too big to fail.” He has now “pivoted,” to use a favorite phrase from the pundits, and shifted his focus to trying to fix a still deteriorating economy.
He has gone from coddling the banks to turning on them with strong rhetoric that has financial stocks reeling, and progressives cheering. Analysts who have looked at the content of his new rules though, say they are vague enough to dive a supertanker through. Another reform in name and gesture but not in reality!
The administration is also floating new proposals to reenergize a foreclosure relief program that has brought little relief to beleaguered homeowners. More liberal terms for loan repayments are being introduced especially for those who have trouble paying their mortgages because they have lost jobs.
Today, default/delinquency/foreclosure rates continue to skyrocket and soon there will be more prime mortgages in arrears than subprime ones. More than 25% of all homes are now “under water.” Millions more families are at risk. Foreclosures continue to rise. The housing crisis at the center of the financial crisis has not been “fixed.”
What to do? Doing nothing is no longer an option.
Click on link to read entire article on Alternet.org.
Tags: banking reform, deteriorating economy, foreclosure rates, homes under water, housing crisis, predatory lending
January 27th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Egads, no! We need stupidity relief!
One should know, by common sense, not to spend money one doesn’t have. I hear that the average American has $8k in credit card debit. That’s pathetic. Others bought “McMansions” and luxury cars, while not saving anything. Others blindly believing the “talking heads” on Talk Radio and cable TV.
It’s bad enough that the Government is spending money they don’t have, but to give sympathy and public relief for those that choose to ignore the obvious. I have been unemployed for over a year, but have always paid my debits when due in full, and have been saving for 40 years; I am no one special, have no college degree, and am not a genius, but it was obvious to me when I was a kid that I couldn’t have it if I didn’t have it.
No, we need a GITMO for the debitors, (remember, they used to incarcerate those who spent beyond their means) with mandated fundamental mathematic and economic schooling, as they stamp out license plates and sweep the streets till their debit is paid off.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:17 am
Sorry, Michael, but the entire culture of America over the last two decades was about “having it all, now”. As you know, the idea that you can get something for nothing has been driven pretty deep into our brains.
Driven by who? Well, you know the answer to that: Those who would profit mightily from the loan culture. The banks. They were the ones who clamored for FMNA to relax its rules in 1999, because they hated the paperwork. Then they opened the floodgates and made a ton of money. Then when they ran into trouble, pols jumped over tables to help them out.
But the fodder they used to make that money? Us? Do we get a bailout? A massive debt relief proposal like Schechter asks for is not just economically sound, it is good principle.
-Tom
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Obama is “brave enough” to bail out the big banks, the auto, insurance and financial giants–the likely primary cause of this current depression/recession, ratchet up the U.S. attack on Afghanistan–in violation of international law and making HIMSELF a WAR CRIMINAL in just his 100 (+) days in office; he is just “brave enough” to appoint to his cabint a number of the democracy- hating criminals who were the “architects” of this current depression/recession and just “brave enough” to passively stand by and watch his already feeble “healthcare” bill–devoid of the public option–be dismantled (such as it was!) by most republicans and their democrat-party allies (since they feed from the corporate trough).
But to ask whether HE is “brave enough” to initiate a program of public debt relief is like asking General Motors to fight bankrupcy in order to save the jobs of it’s employees.