The Obama administration's $275 billion program to stem a wave of home foreclosures will start having an impact as soon as March, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman Sheila Bair said Thursday. "I think you'll start seeing an immediate impact in the increase of meaningful loan modifications in March, when the program becomes effective," Bair said on ABC's "Good Morning America."And a roundup via Economists View (see EV for intro's/summaries):
A good plan, except.., by Richard Green:...HT: Marginal Revolution who writes:
Comments on Housing Plan, by Calculated Risk:...
Housing repair, Free Exchange:...
Housing plan: "Clever," "smart," and "elegant", by Andrew Leonard: ...
And Now Homeowners, by Robert Reich:...
Obama’s Housing Plan: Who Will Benefit?, by David Leonhardt:...
Obama's Housing Plan Unveiled, by Felix Salmon:...
...1. Housing prices ought to be lower, and as quickly as possible. So aiding homeowners cannot be justified on the grounds of propping up prices, which is difficult to accomplish anyway. Such aid has to be justified in some other way. The main argument is that our ex post procedures for foreclosures are not what we would have chosen ex ante, had we known that such a severe housing and financial crisis could be possible. That opens up some room for beneficial intervention, but a good plan it still hard to pull off.2. When it comes to refinancing the Fannie and Freddie loans, and expanding those agencies, how many foreclosures will this avoid? We should be reducing the size of the mortgage agencies rather than putting another $200 billion into them....MORE
