http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1879270,00.html said:


A Better Bank Fix: Cut Every Mortgage's Principal
By Ari J. Officer Friday, Feb. 13, 2009
fixing banks trimming dollars
Images.com / Corbis

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has unveiled a new plan to combat the financial crisis: convincing private financial institutions to buy up "toxic assets" with the government's backing. While this is a step up from former Secretary Henry Paulson's original bailout plan—in which the government itself would buy up the bad securities—it is still not the right approach.
More Related

* 18 Tough Questions (and Answers) About the Bailout
* Homeowners Ask: Hey Washington, Little Help?
* How to Stop the Banks’ Bleeding: No Easy Choices

Instead, there is a better, cheaper, less risky, more direct way to improve banks' balance sheets and restore confidence. Here's how:

Reduce the outstanding principal on every single mortgage to, say, 70% of the original value. Yes, you read that correctly: Lower every single American's mortgage debt by a fixed percentage. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis.)

If homeowners owe less money on their mortgages, they will be less likely to stop making their payments. The plan is equivalent to a universal renegotiation of terms that improves the situation for both homeowners and banks. As a bonus, mortgage-backed—and, indeed, all mortgage-based—securities will become less "toxic" by virtue of a trickle-up effect.

Experts have pointed to a $30.6 billion deal between Merrill Lynch and the Lone Star group of private equity funds as a model for the new government plan. Lone Star purchased that amount of Merrill Lynch's portfolio of asset-backed securities. Merrill Lynch reduced Lone Star's risk by financing three-quarters of the purchase. Therefore, Lone Star had limited risk, similar to how funds would have limited risk buying the bad securities with government backing. But the most important part of the deal was not Lone Star's risk; it was the price. Lone Star paid 22 cents on the dollar. This means that Merrill Lynch had priced its asset-backed assets somewhere around 22% of their original value. (Watch a video of a car dealer staying optimistic in tough times.)

Geithner hopes to encourage private investors to buy these asset-backed securities, giving the banks cash and eliminating further downside risk to their portfolios. But why not try to actually make the securities more valuable, in reality, so that investors want to buy them from the banks, without the need for government support?

Thus far, the government has focused on trickle-down solutions: dealing with complicated assets like mortgage-based securities in the hopes of stabilizing the values of more concrete assets, such as homes. In contrast, my approach addresses the root of the problem. Thus, the government would help ensure that the mortgage-based securities find a stable price via a trickle-up effect. After all, it would take an inconceivable number of foreclosures at 70% of principal to justify the assets' trading down to 22% of their face value.

This plan costs the government—and the American taxpayer—nothing but a trivial amount, the operating costs. Again, it is nowhere near as complex as what the government has done so far. It carries a small price tag compared to the massive, mostly ineffectual spending that has been the basis of the current policies. (See pictures of the global financial crisis.)

Why lower the principal of the mortgages instead of reducing the interest rate of the loan? Because it creates far more incentive for homeowners to continue mortgage payments. Moreover, with all the "exotic" loans out there, many with adjustable rates, the principal component is the only standard across all mortgages. Adjusting the remaining principal, then, is the most general way to renegotiate all mortgages as equitably as possible.

Further, there is currently a crisis of confidence in the banking world. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the future of asset values and the prices of complicated derivatives like mortgage-based securities, the banks are hoarding money. They lack trust even to lend to each other. Reducing mortgage principals addresses both of those problems directly. By stabilizing the mortgage markets, much of the uncertainty will vanish. Banks' balance sheets could stabilize. And confidence may very well return.

Implementation is the most difficult part of this proposal. While many financial institutions would immediately discount the plan, ultimately convincing them to accept it is not unreasonable. It is true that for those institutions that hold physical mortgages, their maximum potential profit will go down by the discount. For a 30% decrease in principal, the math works out to some $3 trillion potentially lost on residential mortgages, as of mid-2008, according to the Federal Reserve. But if Americans keep defaulting on these mortgages, and asset values continue to crash, the total loss to the financial world will be far greater than $3 trillion.

It is also true that the banks will probably want to discriminate: Why should they lower the principal on "good" mortgages? Why not just on those most likely to foreclose? Thanks to tranches, the "good" have been rolled together with the "bad", and specialized renegotiation is easier said than done. That is why banks have not already renegotiated loans on a large scale. But with the government's pressure, lowering the remaining principal on every mortgage could easily become a reality.

The only banks that could legitimately lose on this are those that hold nothing but "good" mortgages or tranches of "good" mortgages, with no "bad" assets. Since TARP has attracted such interest from virtually every bank, we can conclude that such "good"-mortgage banks exist only in small number.

Other advantages of this solution are that it is universal and non-discriminatory: every mortgage holder in the United States gets a break. Homeowners without mortgages also benefit, as foreclosures directly lead to deflated home values, and foreclosures will be reduced considerably. At the same time, the banks' assets will have a greater inherent value: their balance sheets will improve, and they are likely to begin loaning sooner than with the government plans.

Unlike Geithner's plan, this solution is simple and transparent. It does not require the government to price complicated derivatives. It requires only one decision: by what uniform percentage to reduce mortgages. And unlike all of the other plans out there, it does not require significant government spending. It is also politically palatable, as it does not discriminate and does not rescue certain institutions over others. Homeowners get the most direct benefit, and the solution is efficient because of its flat-tax-like nature. Just about everybody wins.

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From: Hl Plastics (jobs.resumes10[at]yahoo.com)
Sent: Fri 1/23/09 9:43 AM
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We have accepted your application for the job and We have your information in our database. The HR Managers checked your resume and you have been picked as one of our possible candidates for Accounts Receivable Manager due to some factors of the Company, Your primary task would be receiving payments for our company and Customers.We are about to open a representative offices or authorized sales centers in some local city in the States. Your Accounts Receivable Clerk duty would be that you become our Account Receivable Manager (ARM) and its a contract -to-hire position which is a 1 month trial after which the position is made full time.Please be advised that we need total dedication for the job. Interview and Instructions will be scheduled for you when you get payment for the company, get payment from our client and customers as your first assignment for the Account Receivable Manager.

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For example: if you receive 4000.00 USD and your 10% should be 400.00 USD Plus your basis monthly salary is 1000.00 USD here are the information you are to provide then we will get back to you after we must have gone through it all.

You have to fill the information given to you below so that we can add your mailing address to our Regional database and we have to re-confirmed the mailing address in our Database.

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* Full Name_______________
* Address_________________
* City____________________
* State___________________
* Zip Code________________
* Home Phone______________
* Cell Phone______________
* Age_____________________
* Email___________________
* Present Occupation______
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Your response to this email is needed, so that we can reconfirm your mailing address details we have in our data base. I will let you know what to do please we need total dedication to this Job. Your prompt reply will determine how hardworking and fast you will handle the Job (Account Receivable Position).We will be waiting for prompt reply from you if you are really ready for the job position and I will let you know when the payment has been sent and i will let you know what to do please we need total dedication to this Job. We will be looking forward to hear from you for the job position.

Thanks for your understanding and we look forward for your quick reply with contact information requested from you and get it sent for the Human Resources Manager and Company Headquarter to have in the Company Database.

Human Resources,
HL Plastics.

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