A solution from the private sector

I went to a meeting today and heard an excellent explanation of how we got to where we are in this financial mess we are in. The explanation started in the 60s and ended with today's mess. It was excellent. The important message was that the blame didn't lie with one party or group of people. It was everyones fault. That  is the truth!!

Then he offered a solution that I thought was great. Instead of just throwing money at the lenders and hoping for the best try this. Take the people who are having a hard time paying their mortgages and give them a gov't loan. It works like this. Take a figure, lets pick $80,000 and give that to the homeowner to pay down his loan amount at an interest rate of 1% and treat it as a second. Re amortize the first at the reduced  loan balance. The homeowner gets lower payments, the "bank" gets the cash infusion and the gov't makes 1%.

NO free handouts  No gambling on maybe we get some of it back some day.