Yet another subsidy. When do the housing pigs - mortgage bankers, home builders, real estate agents, etc. - not have their snouts firmly planted in the federal welfare trough?

The official mouth-piece of the Obama administration speaks his mind again.

My prediction, he'll post a story of tomorrow's unemployment numbers rise and shine before anyone else here. Gotta love the bad news bear.

The one way to fire up the economy is too lower mortgage interest rates to 3% across the board. People will start spending again and homes will start to sell again. They would not have to bail anyone out or give out stimulus money which is just a temporary relief.

Great - another tax incentive to help those that don't need help right now. What about EXISTING HOME OWNERS - you know, the people that are LOSING their homes!? They say they've dropped interest rates - I've yet to see a dramatic drop. BRING the mortgage rates down to 4 and 4.5% and this will help millions to refinance. Instead, they offer tax credits for new buyers. Get more to buy, but God forbid you help those who already own out any bit!

TCH's comments demonstrate an ignorance of who was hurt as a result of the housing crisis. The lenders and the banks have benefitted, the tens of thousands of real estate agents, often second, but necessary family incomes have not. It was the realtors who tried to off-set loan schemes by telling their clients not to accept loans beyond their worth or for more than what they needed. I watched a number of agents do this because they demonstrated a conscience, where the banks and other lenders did not. Many of the same real estate agents who tride to do what was right, have now lost their jobs. It's easier to use a broad brush than one that addresses that accurately addresses details.

The economy needs an outright corrrection that is based on ethical and fair practices. We've seen the self-serving corruption that exists in Washington and on Wall Street so despite Obama's eloquent pleas, there is little chance that either will seriously address the core cause of our nation's economic problems. They are lack of ethics, conscience and sense of fairness. Think about it, banking and credit practices are simply criminal. Should anyone, any entity, under any circumstances be circumstances be permitted to charge 29% interest on a loan. This used to be the practice of the crime syndicates. Should the IRS be permitted to penalize families into bankruptcy? Let's try the following to improve the economic environment: 1. No entity is permitted to charge more than 12% for credit. Disband the IRS, which is by far one of the largest bureaucracies is the government (single greatest inhibitor to the economic success of individuals, families and our nation's economy) and in it's place apply a fair taxation policy of 0%, 2%, 5%, 10% and 20% with corelative incomes (no other variables). 2. Provide a credit to the purchasers of U.S. Made products (criteria needed). 3.Professional lobbyist are limited to the number of contacts they can have with elected officials (and donations made) within a calendar year and all such meetings are to be demonstrated on a public registry. 4. Late fee penalties imposed by banks and other lending institutions need to reflect fairness and conscience. No such entity should be permitted to change penalties above 5% for a ny reason and we're not talking about compounded interest, which should be simply made illegal.
5. The government should work with the public sector to encourage entrepreneurship by creating "win-win" start-up scenarios, such as matching funds with entrepreneurs during the start-up phase of viable (criteria needed) businesses.

I'm sure their are many bright people out there, way more intelligent than myself, who can develop many other potential solutions for re-instituting ethics and fairness into our economic environment. What would it be like if the government were in the business of fairness and opportunity and employed an ideation system that would translate ethical and fair solutions inputs into practice. And thoughfor the most part, big business does not have a conscience, shouldn't the government encourage it to operate with one? Yes the government needs to demonstrate one of its own, yet by meeting its repsonsibilites to its owners and shareholders (its citizens) it may grow a conscience. I believe that the American people have a core a of goodness and a sense of fairness. All I am suggesting is that the goverment reflect those same attributes back at them. I know that all of this argument is imperfect, but still I believe that a lack of ethics and conscience is at the core of our current challenges.

it may help home sales but that is not what the problem is, this is merely softening the blow of the the credit crunch that is the solution to this problem. for the past couple of decades we have been giving loans to anyone with an income, same with credit cards. the fact that so many people accepted arm loans is evidence that loans were given to people who either couldnt understand them or didnt plan for the future enough to be good candidates for home buyers. when this settles down the 20% down once required for a home purchase will be reinstated and that will prevent this from happening again... that is unless uncle sam decides to prop up the system and foot the bill for this collapse and the next one.

8 months and we have already doubled the homeowner credit. Yet the housing market continues to falter. Further per this review of the credit ( http://www.savingtoinvest.com/2009/02/15000-first-home-buyer-tax-credit-in.html ) the tax management of this credit is going to be tricky, particularly because it is not retroactive to the current rebate.