When the current administration came into power it promised “Hope and Change,” and struggling homeowners, devastated by the rising unemployment and the collapse of the housing market, eagerly awaited the changes that would save them from foreclosure. The previous administration’s Hope for Homeowners had proved more hopeless than hopeful, and the promised relief had never materialized.
But January had ushered in a new attitude, and new team that would look out for Main Street, not Wall Street; and hopes ran high. February’s announcement that 7 – 9 million homeowners would be saved from foreclosure let struggling homeowners know that help was on the way. If they could hold on for a couple of months, a new program would allow their lender to modify their loan, insuring they could remain in their home.
Well, we’ve now had a loan modification program for about nine months, and it’s a joke, a farce, masquerading as a rescue of the “little guy,” when in reality it’s just a continuation of the pandering to big banks that is the cornerstone of this and previous administrations.
Sure, we can say that those who applied for mortgages are receiving the consequences to which they agreed in their loan documents. We can say that the banks were providing them a service by loaning the bank’s money, but that’s all irrelevant. These are not normal times. The economy, housing market, and banking system are on a tight wire stretched over a chasm of unknown depth. We can say it’s just business as usual; “let the chips fall where they may;” but the fall may break them so severely they can never be repaired.
Our leaders have failed us. They are not leading. They are accomplices in a great crime against the people and the system that has allowed us to prosper for two centuries. It is time for change, and I hope enough of us will speak out to make our voices heard.
Comments (18)Subscribe to CommentsComment