Loan Forgiveness Good for the Economy, and Maybe Fannie and Freddie Mac Too
By Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica | News AnalysisNew analyses by mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have added an explosive new dimension to one of the most politically charged debates about the housing crisis: Whether to reduce the amount of money beleaguered homeowners owe on their mortgages.
Their conclusion: Such loan forgiveness wouldn't just help keep hundreds of thousands of families in their homes, it would also save Freddie and Fannie money. That, in turn, would help taxpayers, who bailed out the companies at a cost of more than $150 billion and are still on the hook for future losses.
Obamacare Battle Will Be a Proxy Fight of Divisions in American Politics
By Steven Rosenfeld, Alternet | News AnalysisThe Obamacare battle that will come before the Supreme Court in the longest hearings in nearly a half-century is a proxy fight between the seemingly irreconcilable differences in American politics. On one side are centrist Democrats, who, like Obama, believe that the social safety net needs mending and that the private sector and all citizens have obligations to support that effort. On the other side are Republican opponents who do not want to see federal government do much beyond waging wars, and who do not even want their states to pay for current obligations—whether as health programs, pensions or education—and amazingly, do not even offer an alternative but instead posture behind their survival-of-the-fittest, let-the-market-fix-it ideology.
