LyrArc Article Gist
The report by Hope Now, the White House backed mortgage industry group formed to help homeowners who are having serious difficulty and may face foreclosure says the help offered so far in 2007 was simply to help distresssed homeowners by extending their payments a bit. In effect postponing foreclosure but doing nothing more. Treasury Secretary Paulson says lower interest rates are helping. But this help isn't going to do much as millions of homeowners face foreclosure in the next 24 months. As interest rates rise in the future these homeowners will face foreclosure and fundamentally little will have changed. This is the view expresssed in a NYT editorial calling for action on the eve of aspeech by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke callig for serious help by reducing the size of the loans so that homeowners can see some real relief. This means somone is going to have to take a loss or a hit, in some way private lenders with help from the Fed and the Government have to take some serious action before this situation descends into disastrous consequences for all.