{"id":4922,"date":"2008-10-13T12:07:13","date_gmt":"2008-10-13T19:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=4922"},"modified":"2008-10-13T12:07:16","modified_gmt":"2008-10-13T19:07:16","slug":"obama-ups-the-stakes-in-his-contest-with-mccain-over-who-can-do-more-enduring-damage-to-the-crippled-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4922\/obama-ups-the-stakes-in-his-contest-with-mccain-over-who-can-do-more-enduring-damage-to-the-crippled-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama ups the stakes in his contest with McCain over who can do more enduring damage to the crippled economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Witness:<\/a><\/p>\n

Democrat Barack Obama is calling for a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a two-year tax break for businesses that create jobs as part of a plan to heal the nation’s ailing economy.<\/p>\n

The presidential candidate says banks that participate in the federal bailout should temporarily postpone foreclosures for families making good-faith efforts to pay their mortgage.<\/p>\n

He also called for a $3,000 tax credit for each additional full-time job a business creates. The tax break would end after 2010.<\/p>\n

Obama also is proposing letting people withdraw up to $10,000 from their retirement accounts without any penalty this year and next.<\/p>\n

The Obama campaign emphasizes that these ideas can be done quickly, either through executive order or legislation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s a question that no presidential candidate, apparently, can answer: Where does investment capital come from?<\/p>\n

A ninety-day moratorium to “temporarily postpone foreclosures for families making good-faith efforts to pay their mortgage” is stupid. A loan is either performing or it isn’t. The lender is never going to foreclose on a performing loan, although the threat or foreclosure may not be withdrawn for quite a while.<\/p>\n

The corollary? If you want out of your mortgage, you have to stop making payments.<\/p>\n

The tax credit is also pretty dumb. If $3,000 is the margin of profitability for a new hire, a few people might get hired.<\/p>\n

But “letting people withdraw up to $10,000 from their retirement accounts without any penalty this year and next” will bleed the economy of lendable capital just when the economy is already bled white of lendable capital.<\/p>\n

I can’t even think of all the ways this is perilously damaging. It encourages a run on retirement accounts, which will probably drive securities values lower over time. Individuals probably shouldn’t reduce their retirement investment stake just when it has suffered a terrible hit. Freeing up that money encourages still more spending on consumer goods — depreciating assets — where it is now invested in future growth.<\/p>\n

But here is the worst feature of this insane proposal: Not only won’t that<\/em> money be committed to future economic growth, but the people whose job it is to invest that money productively will have to think Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Witness: Democrat Barack Obama is calling for a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a two-year tax break for businesses that create jobs as part of a plan to heal the nation’s ailing economy. The presidential candidate says banks that participate in the federal bailout should temporarily postpone foreclosures for families making good-faith efforts to pay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-investment","7":"category-lending","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10763,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10763\/new-york-times-on-the-loan-modification-program\/","url_meta":{"origin":4922,"position":0},"title":"New York Times on the Loan Modification Program","author":"Damon Chetson","date":"January 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times is reporting what everyone at Bloodhound Blog has known for a long time about the Federal Government's attempt to encourage loan modifications: The Obama administration\u2019s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7018,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7018\/obamas-housing-rescue-plan-wont-rescue-housing-but-it-will-delay-the-eventual-recovery-of-the-real-estate-market\/","url_meta":{"origin":4922,"position":1},"title":"Obama’s housing rescue plan won’t rescue housing, but it will delay the eventual recovery of the real estate market","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0Obama's housing rescue plan won't rescue housing, but it will delay the eventual recovery of the real estate market President Barrack Obama came to Mesa Wednesday to announce his new housing initiative. The location made for good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10486,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10486\/a-disaster-for-democrats-yeah-but-what-about-the-rest\/","url_meta":{"origin":4922,"position":2},"title":"A Disaster for Democrats? Yeah, but what about the rest?","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"December 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is just ugly.....Let me attempt to explain.\u00a0\u00a0 Goldman Sachs came out with their economic forecast.\u00a0\u00a0 Here's a brief summary of it:Mediocre growth until late 2011.Unemployment peaking at 10 3\/4 in the middle of 2011.Extremely low inflation through 2011Low interest rates through 2011 (at least the ones the Fed controls.)So,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7171,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7171\/what-if-they-reduced-a-tax-deduction-hardly-anybody-gets-if-youre-the-fib-spinning-pinocchio-at-the-national-association-of-realtors-your-whole-make-believe-world-just-collapsed\/","url_meta":{"origin":4922,"position":3},"title":"What if they reduced a tax deduction hardly anybody gets? If you\u2019re the the National Association of Realtors and you’ve been spinning lies for decades about mortgage interest deductibility, your whole make-believe world just collapsed\u2026","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Kicking this back to the top. It's news again. I wrote this post more than a year ago, but, per The Hill, the tax-deductibility of mortgage interest is back on the table:The popular tax break for mortgage interest, once considered untouchable, is falling under the scrutiny of policymakers and economic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14915,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14915\/what-could-be-worse-than-uncle-sam-as-the-nations-mortgage-monopolist-how-about-uncle-sam-the-monopoly-landlord\/","url_meta":{"origin":4922,"position":4},"title":"What could be worse than Uncle Sam as the nation’s mortgage monopolist? How about Uncle Sam the monopoly landlord?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From the Associated Press:The Obama administration may turn thousands of government-owned foreclosures into rental properties to help boost falling home prices. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday it is seeking input from investors on how to rent roughly 250,000 homes owned by government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4692,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4692\/promoting-affordable-housing\/","url_meta":{"origin":4922,"position":5},"title":"Promoting Affordable Housing","author":"Brian Brady","date":"September 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I didn't believe it when I read it; the bailout bill is \"earmarked\" and ACORN is one of the beneficiaries of the largesse. \u00a0 ACORN may control up to 20% of the $700 billion proffered by the Bush\/Obama Bailout Plan. ACORN?\u00a0 Are you kidding me?\u00a0 THIS is what ACORN really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4923,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922\/revisions\/4923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}