SDXB forwards this bit of intelligence from Bloomberg:
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.
And from the Latin American Herald-Tribune we learn this:
SAO PAULO — General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to “complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012.”
“It wouldn’t be logical to withdraw the investment from where we’re growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets,” he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
Got that? Unimaginable amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars are being forked over to corporate interests, who are taking that recovery money and investing it in jobs in overseas, while American workers are being thrown out of their homes.
These two reports go to prove my own theory:
If Congress handed out the cash to the people who need it—that would be you and me, folks—the “crisis” would be solved.
If everyone in the country were given enough to pay off the average U.S. mortgage and required to use the money that way,the mortgage crisis would end today. People would suddenly have between $1,500 and $5,000 a month back in their pockets, and they would start to spend again. Everyone would be solvent, and bankers would no longer have to worry about whether people with credit scores in the high 700s could make payments on loans.
Let’s suppose your mortgage weren’t as high as the handout. You’d be required to pay off your mortgage, and then you could keep the rest of the dough. If you were one of those virtuous doobies who actually scrimped, saved, worked three jobs, and paid off your mortgage, you would get the entire handout, no strings attached.
If your mortgage exceeded the handout, you’d be required to apply it all toward your mortgage, AND your lender would be required by law to let you refinance the rest at a reasonable rate, no more than 5% or 5.5%.
Everyone would win. Mortgage lenders would get their money back and not be stuck with a dog of a house that can’t be sold. They could now start over with a clean slate. Borrowers would get out from under toxic debt. For most people, it would no longer matter whether they could sell their houses for what they paid for them. And people who were willing to stay in their homes for a few years would be golden.
What a flicking outrage. You don’t suppose I would ever buy another GM car, do you? I buy Japanese cars because the two Chevvies I’ve owned were junk (though not as bad as the Ford Lemon that was my first car). In the past, I’ve bought anything but American because of the awful quality and safety issues. Now, you can be sure, I won’t buy an American car on principle.