To the Editor:
I am one of the responsible people who would be enraged to see my irresponsible neighbors get a break on their mortgages. Nonetheless, I could sign on to the Geanakoplos-Koniak plan if one element were added: a Congressional and presidential guarantee that an ironclad regulatory system will be crafted so that these abuses can never happen again.
Sadly, the coddling of those who got us into this mess strongly suggests that neither branch has the desire or the will to do so.
James Fleming
Potomac, Md., March 5, 2009
To the Editor:
Re “U.S. Sets Big Incentives to Head Off Foreclosures” (front page, March 5):
My wife and I both work in Manhattan and have been married for 10 years. We have two extraordinary children and rent in Queens. We first worked our way out of student loan debt, then credit card debt, and now pay all bills on time, while saving a little each month for retirement and college.
We live on the budget we have. We could never save enough to make a down payment on a house, so we never considered taking out a mortgage even during the “no money down” times because those came with future adjustable interest rates and it seemed foolish to make decisions based on imagined earnings.
Do we want to own a house? Yes. Do we expect help from the government? No. Clearly we are not part of the “new” America.
Michael Royce
Forest Hills, Queens, March 5, 2009
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 