At the rate of 10,00 a week now for some time we already have several million foreclosed homes, most are empty and deteriorating.

Don't know how many more million will eventually go this way, but whatever it is the banks will have to write them off as they occur! Meaning more capital needed from the government.

Since we are taking worthless stock now from the banks for the money, we are never going to get anything out of the gifts! The banks couldn't pay the dividends due on the preferred stock so we let them off that hook also.

Folks, aren't you about ready to see the light?

Let these banks and corporations go broke, put everybody out of work at the same time and go from there to prosperity again. We will owe much less in a shorter time.

Those of us with a few bucks guaranteed by the government will be required to open soup lines and tent shelters. If we don't the government will drop the guarantee.

For what this is worth, here are some of my thoughts on the mortgage mess.

(1) Apparently, many of the mortgages causing problems have interest rates that are scheduled to go up, thus raising the payments. People who accepted these mortgages had everything intention of refinancing before the payments went up, and when they got their initial mortgage they were told they would be able to do so. But now they can’t.

In the low interest rate environment we have today, there is no good reason for these interest rates to go up. They certainly should not go up over 6 percent. If we had a bail-out law capping the interest rate at 6 percent, we’d avoid much of the problem for these people.

(2) People with the least ability to pay mortgages were still given mortgages called sub-prime, with high interest rates. It is obvious that the higher the interest rate the more difficult it is to pay. So these people’s inability to pay is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are being charged too much. If their interest rate was more reasonable, many might survive.

In the low interest rate environment we have today, their interest rate should be cut. Consider a 6 percent cap for them too.

(3) Mortgage lenders are in turmoil because of all the transfers and securitization they have been involved in, and that affects their ability or willingness to renegotiate loans in a way that would benefit the real lenders (the investors) and the mortgage-paying consumers.

Allowing bankruptcy judges to cram down new terms might be an excellent solution. Some lenders are all emotional about this, because the executives who make the decisions are not lending their very own money. Bring in a judge who is both learned and dispassionate, and have him/her impose a solution. That solution will, in the end, prove happier for the investors as well as the borrower and society at large.

I also think that those who aren't making any or very much money and are behind on their mortgages will be out of luck.

Gee, do you really think so?????

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