My letter to Obama wrt bailout.....

Hi Everyone,

I have seldom been participating vociferously in the current
election cycle (though people sitting with me at work may disagree ;-)
). However, with the current climate and Mcain's latest stunt, I
really wanted to put out something -- so that you may comment (I'm
also sending this as a suggestion to Senator Obama). Below is the
text of my email I sent to the campaign (I have no idea if they'll
even see it, but it sure trumps anything they're talking about so far
:-) )

Best Regards,

Murali

Sub: Alternative to Bailout
Dear Senator Obama,

Your response to McCain's political stunt is amazing, especially
within the context of the current economic crisis. The problem right
now is that there is an endless cycle of homeowners and communities a
lot losing value in their property, as well as losing their homes
because of foreclosure.

To stem the problem, you could / should propose something on the
following lines:

1: The markets have liquidity problems. So lets solve that by
injecting liquidity instead of buying the bad loans. (You could inject
50-100 billion dollars to give markets instant liquidity instead of
buying bad loans giving the Fed the authority
to buy GOOD commercial paper instead of bad assets (if they already don't have it) -- that will inject
liquidity instantly. The current problem is that banks aren't lending
because of their balance sheets, the Fed can surely lend and even make
a profit!)
2: Invest 200 billion dollars into easing the burden on home owners
by modifying bankruptcy laws (let judges modify the mortgage contracts) and converting bad mortgages into 30 yr fixed ones.
Those who can't show their income lose their home automatically to
avoid foreclosure. Only help those who have been cheated, those who
have gone into the homes with full knowledge need to be held
responsible for their actions.
3. Propose that people who can afford their homes but go into
foreclosure will be brought in front of a judge - this will zap the
republican mantra of "What about all those people who made the right
choice of not getting homes that they can't afford" (This and my
previous point)
4. Propose that people who do go into foreclosure MUST NOT destroy
the home property or will face legal criminal action (this will
prevent foreclosed homes in depreciating in value even further and can
be sold off quicker)

These investments coupled with a major push to resolve the underlying
crisis (by media, marketing and just American resolve), will I'm sure
get us out of the crisis much faster than anything GW or Mcain can
propose.

Sincerely,



PS: While I generally try to keep my comments just to tech, this is a much bigger issue which will touch everyone in almost any industry. So, I'm posting it :-). My faithful reader(s), please comment.