The Continued Importance of Fair Lending in the Age of Obama
Housing discrimination continues to plague the market, as does the myth that the housing crisis resulted from extending homeownership and home mortgage credit to historically underserved groups: minority families. Even with the Obama administration’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan and, within that, the Making Home Affordable program, minority groups continue to suffer ongoing discrimination and fair housing violations.
Jack Kemp: Stalwart of the Party of Lincoln
Jack Kemp will be remembered for his many roles in public life — as the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, as U.S. Congressman (from Buffalo, NY), the HUD Secretary (under […]
Obama Budget: The Beginning of Meaningful Tax Reform
The Obama Budget represents the beginning of a meaningful reform of the U.S. tax code, a reform that is long overdue. In an earlier post on Rooflines , I had […]
The Obama Housing Plan: Bold and Sensible, But Gaps Remain
There is much that is praiseworthy about the President Obama’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan. It is an intelligent plan that recognizes the seriousness of the housing crisis and the […]
A Stimulus Package We Can Believe In
Author and columnist Tom Friedman described the nation’s current predicament as when Roy Scheider’s character from Jaws gets his first glimpse at the shark, goes to the captain’s cabin and […]
Rationale for Obama’s Tax Policy
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama was asked a question about his increasing taxes for those making more than a quarter million a year. In his impromptu exchange with the […]
A Victory for American Democracy
Americans all over the nation, political pundits, Wall Street workers, and, I venture to guess, even the president, were stunned Monday afternoon to hear that the bailout bill had been […]
Shiller’s “Continuous-Workout Mortgages” Won’t Address the Crux of the Problem
Robert Shiller in an article in The New York Times proposed a more flexible home mortgage that he argues would help prevent crises like the current subprime mortgage crisis. Shiller, […]
Administration Claims Homelessness has Dropped Dramatically. Really?
On July 29, 2008, the White House issued a statement that “chronic homelessness decreased an average of 15 percent per year between 2005 – 2007 and demonstrates that targeted, focused […]
The FHA Refinancing Option for Troubled Loans—Doing it Right
Now that the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act has been signed by the president, let us examine one of its key provisions. Under this act, the Federal Housing […]
Fan & Fred Bill: The Catalyst For a Better Housing Market?
The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008: approved by the Senate on Saturday should appropriately be called the “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Rescue Bill” because that […]
Who Dun It in the “American Murder Mystery?”
The Atlantic story on crime in Memphis (Tenn.) and Louisville (Ky.) by Hanna Rosin and her identifying “one of the most celebrated antipoverty programs of recent decades [the Section 8 […]