After haggling since September the US Senate finally passed an extension for unemployed persons and extended the credit for first time home buyers.

The situation for unemployed persons is dire. Here are just a few facts about their current situation:

• We have 15 million unemployed vying for just three million available jobs.
• 200,000 persons lost their benefits since September
• 7000 persons a day are losing their benefits.
• More than 1/3 of the unemployed have been out or work for at least six months.

Thanks to the ownership society, families have never lost more in three months than they did between July and September of this year. And I have no doubt that when the numbers for the fourth quarter are totaled up, 2008 will go down as the worst year for destruction of family wealth in history.

How bad has the third quarter damage been? Household net worth fell $2.81 trillion, the most since records began in 1952, to $56.5 trillion. Real-estate-related assets declined by $646.9 billion, following a $217.1 billion loss. Owners' equity of real-estate holdings dropped to a record-low 44.7% in the third quarter, from 46% in the second quarter. With 1.9 million jobs lost in the last year and unemployment claims at a 26 year high, people are hurting.

You will remember back in 2004 when President George W. Bush boasted about the wonders of the ownership society. In case you forgot, he bragged about his June 2002 America's Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to increase by at least 5.5 million families the number of minority homeowners before 2010. As Bush boasted, "under his leadership, the overall U.S. homeownership rate in the second quarter of 2004 was at an all time high of 69.2%."

If a vote were held Thursday or Friday, the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion bailout bill would probably pass both chambers of the U.S. Congress, but by narrow margins and with a) an equity stake for U.S. taxpayers for every company that receives assistance, b) a cap on executive compensation, and c) oversight provisions.

Once the bailout work is done, should the U.S. Congress also pass a homeowners assistance bill to help more homeowners with at-risk / burdensome mortgages refinance to secure a lower interest rate?

As BloggingStocks' Jon Berr pointed out Monday, while lawmakers (and no doubt taxpayers) do not want to reward housing speculators, there's a large pool of borrowers who will be able to pay their mortgages if they can get out of high interest rate notes, and other burdensome adjustable rate mortgages, and refinance at a low, 30-year fixed rate.

While it's true the U.S. Government and taxpayers would end up subsidizing refinanced mortgages if the government receives interest that's less than it could by investing the money elsewhere, the costs of foreclosure - leading to bond defaults - leading to banking institution stress / systemic stress will undoubtedly be far greater, so says economist David H. Wang.

Home foreclosure activity dipped 4% in February 2008, as fewer default notice, auction sales notices and bank repossessions were reported than the previous month. However, overall activity remains 60% higher than a year ago, research firm RealtyTrac announced Thursday.

From February 2006 to February 2007 foreclosure activity rose 19%, RealtyTrac said.

Foreclosure filings totaled 223,651 in February 2008, a 60% increase from February 2007, with 1 in 557 U.S. households receiving a foreclosure notice during the month.

State foreclosure rates

Nevada (1 in 165 households) had the U.S.'s highest foreclosure rate, followed by California (1 in 242 households), followed by Florida (1 in 254 households). Vermont (1 in 76,836 households), West Virginia (1 in 22,364), and North Dakota (1 in 13,839) had the nation's lowest foreclosure rates.

Be afraid, be very, very afraid. According to a piece from Marketwatch, subprime is -- to borrow a line from Monty Python -- not dead ... it's just sleeping. And when the subprime players come back, they will just look different. Maybe they'll be more responsible, less predatory, and easier to understand -- but maybe not.

According to some experts, the reason that subprime mortgages will return is that our country is dedicated to the idea of increasing home ownership. And the only real way to increase home ownership is to give mortgages to people who wouldn't traditionally qualify for them.

Perhaps it's a policy that needs some rethinking. As we watch record numbers of Americans struggling with increasing mortgage payments, we have to wonder whether they can keep their homes. There's something to keep in mind: A lot of these people would have been a lot better had they continued renting for now, and our national fixation on the idea of home ownership is a big part of what got them into this problem.

Don't get me wrong: I think home ownership is a wonderful thing, and absolutely something that should be encouraged. But in our religious zeal for creating the ownership society, we've forgotten something: If you can't afford a home, you're better off renting. The fact is that a lot of people bought homes who had no business doing that, and that's a big part of why we're in the crisis we find ourselves in now.