Sunday, February 24, 2008

Afghanistan and Mortgages--Same Thing!

What can you say about Afghanistan? Americans are oversupplied with heavy weaponry, Insurgents are oversupplied with light weapons. The only real defense from L-ambushes are utilization of flankers, but how does a Commander use flankers in mountainous terrain? Americans still have not learned that they talk only with Insurgent leadership, as no neutral Civilians will be allowed to conduct long-term negotiations with the Enemy. Stop-loss of key personnel destroys troop morale, while making experienced personnel paranoid; American leadership still not integrating WWI doctrine of leaving troops in Risk areas no longer than 5 Weeks, before transfer to a low-threat area for Rest. American Outposts lightly manned and flown in must be positioned along traditional routes, and only these Outposts should be allowed access to Air munitions assets. Patrols should only be conducted within Daylight hours, and never where they cannot overnight at an Outpost; the later situated where they can oversee Patrol movements, and assign potential Air assets upon Need. Outposts need to be organized and zeroed in, so that Outposts can be defended by artillery fire. Sniper teams need to be rotated between Outposts, and allowed free fire upon confirmation of the transference of military weaponry by Insurgent elements. The overwhelming need is to switch the Risk from American military assets to Insurgent elements.

Alan Blinder has many good ideas, but has to worry about introducing too great a complexity. A Mortgage salvage Agency must keep it as simple as possible, because it will become confusing enough when placed in operation. The first doctrine is to employ the initial Issuers of the Mortgages, basically so they become too busy to engage in future poor financing practice. Criteria should be that Mortgage refinance is approved if a Property will retain 75% of its value, if Housing prices drop 25% in value. Federal law should be constructed so that the Federal Government only assumes the Mortgage, with Mortgage-holder agreement to assume a longer-Period Mortgage of lower Payment which will pay off the total value of the initial Mortgage. The Periodic Payments required will be within 70% of the originally-set Payment value, and the Time of Payment will be of whatever duration necessary to complete payment to the federal Agency. The federal government will be committed only to the payment of the original mortgages, and subsequent payment failure by the Homeowner will lead to federal foreclosure and sale of the Property. Federal involvement in the Mortgage debt will be minimized, with the least expenditure of Public funds, a set criteria for repayment of that federal expenditure, and will avoid the debacle of trying to straighten out the complex mess of failed financial instruments–ill-designed.

One can find Reasons for the Mortgage Crisis everywhere One looks, and is the prime rationale for federal law regulating the Mortgage industry. The simplest law I can conceive of would be One that required the filing of a One-Page Declaration form with the County Assessors Office with every Change of Title. The document would list Total Price, Interest Rate charged, the monthly Payment charges, the magnitude of any Late fees charged–both in total magnitude by Percentage and maximum amount levied per monthly payment, and prepayment charges which might be applied–both in Percentage and total amounts, and stipulation that the Loan officer could face 3 years imprisonment for any deception in the above declarations, or his failure to explain each declaration. Each stipulation of the Declaration page must be initialed by both the Mortgage borrower, and the loan officer; the Signature of both Borrower and Loan Officer required at the bottom, before Title will be altered. lgl

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