. . . cramdowns are just what the system needs.

Cramdowns Are Not the Answer I agree with SusanStoHelit--cramdowns are simply not feasible. They're good for the small picture--the borrower--but bad for the big picture in that such a policy will lead to the failure of many more banks, and very quickly too. -- Writing Teacher

Cramdowns are just desserts for the lack of good sense and decency to begin with. Banks and mortgage companies that went whole hog for subprime lending created the mess. They can now live with the consequences.

Banks will not suffer for cramdowns if they gain a stable borrower in the process. These are nothing but paper loses if houses are revalued at current market and mortgages are rewritten to a 30-year fixed at current rates.

The economy would be better of anyway if a lot these banks failed and were taken over by the FDIC.

. . . and prohibit mortgage lenders from selling the loans they write. -- IaintBacchus

It it time to get rid of fractional reserve banking. -- Blase01

"Gentlemen, man your bunkers!"

coops do the US have anything like we do here in Quebec, financial cooperatives? The vast majority of people here deal with one (Desjardins) where you have a 'social part' (err own a tiny share) and so dividends are shared between the 'participants' each year. -- Songes

And I've yet to read on any being "upside down" due to poor lending practices.

In fact, since they function as close to a non-profit entity as is possible in finance, I'm surprised that people didn't, first, abandon savings banks altogether in the wake of (John McCain's) S&L scandal and then, over the last five years or so, the retail side of commercial banks. There are comparatively few community banks left any more, and even a lot of these fucked-up, getting a bit big for their britches and buy crap debt instruments. Credit unions are probably where one's money should be.

DUPLEX THE FORECLOSED HOMES Here's my brilliant solution to the stupid housing crisis: Duplex the foreclosed homes. This could be helpful for several reasons: -- Bellatrix LeStrange

So, are you suggesting that you make them some kind of group home? Designating certain rooms for family one and others for family two? Kitchen and bathrooms shared?

A plus side are all the Corona bottles left in my yard.-- something stinks

They could be Bud Light or Miller empties.

. . . that Geithner wasn't in office when Bear was allowed to go away. This was Paulson's decision, and I'm sure there is no love lost between him and Cayne, who was a far from loved or even respected figure on Wall Street. Bear Sterns, for good or bad, was definitely the metal filing cabinet in the walnut credenza world of high finance.

. . . if were something new and sinister.

Here's the thing: from what I read, three-fourths of all mortgages were sold on. Banks bundled them, sold them to become MBS -- which then went through the slice'n'dice Wall St. ponzi factory; CDOs and all the rest. -- Novista

Yes. This is how it's been done now for about 30 years. It's what makes more money available for new loans. You don't think banks have millions of dollars just waiting there for new mortgages do you? Savings deposits can't begin to cover the amount of economic activity funded by lending.

Selling off a mortgage or a bundle of mortgages is what gives the U.S. the most liquid real estate market in the world. The problem with this only arose in about 2005 when banks, all of a sudden, quit using the same tried and true underwriting criterion that had worked for about 60 years - X% down, solid income and job stability, customer pays other bills on time. Only when banks started making millions of adjustable rate loans to people who couldn't even qualify at today's low fixed rates with a measly 5% down.

The "slicing and dicing" was a new wrinkle done, yet to be conclusively proven, to make these now multiple securities more difficult to unravel when they fell apart.

Obama needs to ditch his economic team Reportedly, Larry Summers shouts down calls by others for a more activist government role in resolving the banking crisis, deriding them as "Putinesque." (Norm Scheiber, TNR) The Obama team's policy seems little different from Hank Paulson's in its fear of government intervention to clean up the mess on Wall Street. -- CarolynC

I thought Summers was a poor choice to being with since he's part and parcel of policy decisions that helped get us where we are today. Along with Emanuel, he's the worst of the Clinton retreads.

I want Krugman! I want Stiglitz! To the barricades!

I'm really not interested in what Rush/Jindal/Boener/Canter/etc or any of the screaming financial reporters have to say. -- karinb

But never forget that nearly half of America voted for the idiot who was up to his ass in the S&L scandal and claimed the Joe the Plumber was a "hero."

Because Obama hasn't impaled the heads of any bankers and such on the White House fence yet, the great unwashed masses will get restless in another couple of months as long as these shameless shits continue to blame him for all the problems. Right now, Obama needs to take a page form Hugo Chavez and Huey Long's playbook - you can't get populist enough at this time. You can't practice class warfare to too great of a degree right now if he hopes to win in the long run.

This is a case where we may have to destroy the village to save it.

Bill Clinton is the only person who could fix this economy. -- Bellatrix LeStrange

It was during Clinton's presidency that the primary piece of financial regulation that had for decades prevented much of what we have today was dismantled.

Bill Clinton is a lot of things. A financial genius is not one of them.

. . . lieutenant governors.

Dean should be DHHS head.