Earlier today, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds poses the question:
WHY NOT SOLVE THE MORTGAGE CRISIS by giving money to homeowners? “So, instead of the massive moral hazard — and general unseemliness — of putting taxpayer money on the line to bail out Wall Street banks and brokers at the top end of the pyramid, why not aim at the broad BASE of the pyramid?”
UPDATE: Lots more from Arnold Kling.
Michelle Malkin asserts:
Ellen Ratner writes:
Some good has already come from our economic crisis. It’s taken a potential economic meltdown to reignite the fires of bipartisanship, but Congress is back to working together to properly exercise over site over the executive branch and that’s a good thing.
The Financial Times Alphaville warns:
Hank Paulson’s bailout plan is experiencing a bit of a trip-up …
… The Treasury Secretary is wrangling with Congress over details of the $700bn bailout, the centrepiece of which involves buying up mortgage-related (i.e. toxic) assets from banks. All well and good in theory, except that no one really knows their value.
Here’s my thought - why not just solve it by removing confiscatory property taxes …
… and along with that all the “hidden” taxes built into our electric, water, cable and gas bills?
That way, those most impacted define the value of these assets by making payments … or prove they were indeed bad credit risks by stimulating the economy … either way voting with their wallets and avoiding bail-out induced bureaucratic bungling.
