Obama Calls for Help!

During his major Jobs address last evening, the President also took some time to pledge help to homeowners trying to stave off foreclosure of their homes. He pledged to assemble a refinance program that would allow suffering homeowners to refi their existing loans at today's lower rates. The specifics of such a plan have not yet been announced, but it is clear that any type of program along these lines would save hundreds of thousands of people's homes. It would cost the lending institutions money in terms of reduced interest income, but, since accounting rules require lenders to write off the entire principal amount when they foreclose, it would seem here that even a relatively small loss in expected income would be far better than a total actual loss on the value of the mortgages involved that would result from foreclosures. Suggestion at this point: Get on your Congressperson's bask, and your Senators' backs and push on this idea. It certainly is a good one, and could very well be second only in importance to reviving the economy to job creation.