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Missing the Target

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Feldstein points out that Obama economic plans missed the real target, which was on the home front where it came down to addressing the problems of 15 million homeowners under water- with mortgages exceeding the value of their homes- and lack of solutions to deal with the $1.5 trillion in troubled commercial real estate loans. Administration plans really did not help more than a couple of hundred thousand homeowners to reduce their monthly mortgage payments. Getting banks to start lending again by selling impaired loans to nonbank investors, also failed to work, as banks were reluctant to do so and reduce their accounting capital. Health care legislation simply distracted attention from the real problems. See the links to Feldstein's repeated insistence that the new administration (and even during the late stages of the Bush administration) focus on these problems. Health care legislation that passed simply would not control the increase in health care spending, that the public correctly perceived as the real problem if the other health care issues were to be resolved. Instead Obama's health care legislation offered to increase the deficit to unsustainable levels, with no solutions to more pressing home front problems in sight. Feldstein, is one of the most eminent US economists.

Martin Feldstein on the risks for the American Economy after failures in the Obama Economic plan.

09/12/2007

Failures to address problems on the housing front, especialy the problems for 15 million homeowners under water- see the links to opeds by Feldstein suggesting focus on these issues throughout 2008-2009. And the focus on health care which diverted attention from this problem and the problem facing bad loans in commercial real estate. Other problems are failure to get bank lending up for businesses. And the failure of Obama health care plans to control the increase in the nation's surging health care spending, instead increasing the deficit to unsustainable levels. Public sentiment as shown in WSJ/NBC polls confirm Feldstein's sense of the situation.

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