Save the Cheerleader, Save the Economy
If you are a sci-fi geek and you remember the first season of the show Heroes, you know that the entire story evolved around saving the cheerleader to save the future of the world — “save the cheerleader, save the world.”
I believe saving the housing market today can save the economy tomorrow. The U.S. housing market, specifically the sub-prime mortgage market and the mess that was created around it, was the starting point that brought the U.S. economy down and the world economy with it.
Unlike Hiro Nakamura and his time-travel super powers, the U.S. government cannot go back in time to undo the damage that they frankly had a hand in creating. They can however do something about it now that can rebound the economy overall. Something they should have done three years ago when president Obama took office but they didn’t, hence my frustration with the half measures the administration took in attacking this major issue including The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 which failed miserably.
I’m not an economist, so I don’t understand why the government cannot save the housing market by extending FHA loans or regular fixed loans to all the families at risk of losing their homes, including those who are temporally out of a job but have a good credit and employment track. The government lends money to the banks at zero percent, but cannot provide mortgage relief at a fixed low rate?
This means the government will take few billion dollars loss on the short term, but potentially rebound the economy overall. The banks were bailed out with tax payer money, yet many tax payers credit got destroyed in the process which seems to be unfair. Those are the same tax payers who bought those homes in part because of President Bush’s call to ‘buy into the American dream.’
I claim that most people can afford their homes but cannot maintain the bubble loan they were given especially if they are changing jobs in this hard economy. The time to act is now – a final chance for this administration to prove that it came for real change, not half measures.
Overall, with 46 million Americans on food stamps, congress need to provide radical solutions and efforts on many issues or otherwise step aside and let a new generation of new, young, fresh smart minds (which this country is full of) to rise and tackle these problems.
The housing market is the cheerleader, the government and congress can be Hiro Nakimora, but so far they have proven that they absolutely don’t care.
