Henican responds

Thanks, Bill. As you correctly point out, there is no one cause of the housing collapse. There is no one group culpable. There is no one easy solution. Certainly government policy, bading lend proceedures and irresponsible borrowers all played a part. So what do we do? Up til now, we've done almost nothing, other than bail out the banks. Isn't it about time we begin to get needy homeowners some relief and make some of the sleaziest lenders pay? We've already begun to change government policiy, thankfully. Crafting a way of doing the first two isn't easy, for some of the reasons you cite. But there are several good reasons to do so. 1. The lenders should have known better. They're the growns-up in the lending process. 2. The housing collapse remain a huge burden on the entire economy. A foreclosed home hurts everyone in the block, everyone in the town -- and on and on. 3. Not one of these loans was written by Freddie or Fannie or any other government agency. They were approved by bankers and mortgage hypsters and other supposed professionals whose recklessness, greed or evil -- you pick it -- just about sunk our ecnomy. And so far, hardly any of them have paid at all. To me, that's the biggest piece of unfinished business here. This deal is a start but only a start.

Of course, I welcome your disagreement. Thanks for taking the time to write.