The Feds are having a hard time selling the bailout to the American people because all of the people who pay their bills are getting nothing but the tab for this. I have a couple of thoughts which I did send to Barney Frank, and got no response, but the following 2 ideas would stabilize the economy immediately, make all taxpayers in the country feel good about the bailout and jumpstart the housing market instantly.

 1) Any bank wishing to participate in the bailout should write down the Principal Balance on all GOOD loans that are not in default by 20%. That way all Americans would feel like they were getting something, and there would be a cost to the banks. Yes they would get rid of the bad loans on their books, but they would be paying the public for the right to do it. If you sell your home in the first year, 100% of the profit would go back to the bank that wrote down the balance, the in year 2-80%, year 3-60%, year 4-40%, year 5-20%. They could keep a subordinate lien on your property to ensure their recapture.

 2)The Government should provide a $20,000.00 downpayment to anyone who wishes to purchase a home in the next 12 months. Primary residences only. That would immediately stabilize the real estate market. Values would stop going down and there would be bidding wars  for property. All the excess inventory of homes on the market would disappear in 3 months.