Who Can Fix The Housing Crisis?

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If you were President of the United States, what would you do to fix the housing crisis?

California Governor Arnold Schwarznegger might know what to do, even though he couldn't serve as President, the way the law is written now. To win, nominees must be born in the United States.

Schwarznegger has been too busy to run for office at this time, anyway. He has been looking to see if he could get a
$7-billion loan to fund day-to-day
government operations. The state is unable to access the routine short-term loans it typically relies on to remain solvent.

Who else might know and have a minute to explain? How about Al Gore? He supports "solutions to the climate crisis" and asks," What would happen if governments ignored the un-capitalist cries for mercy spilling out from Wall Street and put the money towards climate change instead? What would $700 billion buy?"
 
Here's another possibility: Donald Trump, chairman and CEO, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. In a September program called "Your World with Neil Cavuto," Trump asked: "Should the banks be helped because they made bad deals? Maybe they should suffer. Maybe that bank should go under. Maybe that bank should be taken over. I don't see how the government can help."

"And maybe, If we had taken over a bank, we would not be in the mess we're in right now." Cavuto suggested. Eight months ago, he predicted "more bank mess." He proved to be correct.

Others with something to say on the subject are Ralph Nader, T. Boone Pickens, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

For now, we won't talk about the nominees for President. Instead, consider Ralph Nader, who is running for the office as an Independent. 

The 74-year-old attorney is known for having taken on the auto industry for its inattention to consumer protection. Not married, he attended Princeton and Harvard.

Another one in the limelight during the later months of the 2008 campaigns is T. Boone Pickens, who has done his work mainly through television advertising. He has had one focus: to find an alternative to being dependent on foreign oil. Housing so far has not been an issue with him.

It was an issue in Sen. Clinton's campaign. She called for "swift action on a bipartisan compromise to address the economic crisis and called for measures to protect service members from foreclosure. She also signed into law the Housing Reform Act.

And that brings us to where the presidential nominees stand.

Barack Obama introduced legislation more than a year ago to fight mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending practices. He called for easier-to-understand information that borrowers receive from mortgage brokers and created a fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosures.

John McCain announced a plan to help struggling homeowners by trading their mortgages for "more manageable loans that reflect the current market value of their homes." Only holders of nonconventional mortgages taken after 2005 would be eligible for the loans, which the Federal Housing Administration would back.