David Brooks tries to make the case for showering money on "frauds and greedy idiots" (his words). He does a lot of "we should...for the good of all" talk.
But what he never says is "I, David Brooks, want to shower my own money on frauds and greedy idiots." Of course, he could do that today if he wanted to. All he'd have to do would be to phone a Merced, CA bank and offer to cover somebody's defaulted mortgage. One phone call. He can afford to do that, and so can multi-millionaires Obama, Hillary, Rahm Emanuel, John Kerry, Charlie Rangel, Ted Kennedy, etc. - and zillionaire Dems like Bill Gates, Bob Rubin, George Soros, etc.
Hence our proposal: If every caring Liberal in the USA would do that to the extent of their ability, problem solved. Plus they would get to feel good about themselves, and to prove that they care.
We just want to see some proof. Readers may have seen Jammie Wearing, who noted in our link this morning how MA taxpayers refuse to "help the children" with voluntary tax dollars when given an easy opportunity to do so: "the left wants to have at it with your money, not their own." (All you need to do is to look at all of the Dem tax cheats unearthed this winter. Now we have Al Sharpton too to add to the lengthening list of prominent Dem tax dodgers.)
But to get back to mortgages, it seems clear to me that government mortgage deals, while buying votes, will accomplish little to (artificially) support the prices of housing. After all, the government already does tons of things to distort and to artificially support and inflate housing prices: mortgage interest deductions*, the passing forward of cap gains from a sold house to a new one, the one-time 1/2 million free throw when you sell, etc.
And speaking of enabling dysfunctional behavior, here's a good use of stimulus $: Free housing for drunken bums. Save me a room, just in case.
* The mortage interest deduction raises the price of housing just as the availablility of student loans and scholarships raise the price of college tuition. These things are not favors to us: they are favors for the greedy housing and greedy academic industries, disguised as favors for us.
Photo via Tiger's amusing series of photos from the Denver protest. Me? Unlike The NJ, I don't want a pony. Already have enough equines. I just want a free one-week trip to Siena. Make that 10 days, so I can cover a little more ground.
