Let Mortgages Fail

Here is a convincing argument to let mortgages fail and foreclosures to continue: http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/30/lower_prices_more_foreclosures_will_solve_housing_98397.html

You have to let market forces take effect. There is no possible way for the government to subsidize people to stay in homes long enough to recover the value they've lost in the recession. Lower home prices, lower property values, and a balancing of housing inventory is a good thing. Over-supply and inflated values need to be combated, but artificially propping them up with government spending will not help them permanently stabilize. Many families have been hit hard, and many have declared bankruptcy. But unless the market truly balances itself, these trends will continue.

I Could Support This

"New College Graduates To Be Cryogenically Frozen Until Job Market Improves"

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-college-graduates-to-be-cryogenically-frozen-u,17034/

There Are Alternatives...

We're all aware that the partisan circus in Washington is never-ending. Democrats constantly accuse the Republicans of standing in the way of their legislation without producing any alternatives; they are "The Party of No." That is true about certain conservative leaders and pundits, but the facts have been overlooked. Several Republican leaders have produced alternative legislation for everything from health care to environmental policy.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R - Wisconsin) drafted "A Roadmap for America's Future" back in January, but it has received little attention until the last few weeks. It is a fairly comprehensive plan aimed at reducing the deficit and controlling government spending, a rebuttal to the deficit-engorging Democratic bills currently working their way through Congress. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to analyze the Roadmap piece by piece, but I will give you the link so you can look it over for yourself. While it is most likely an imperfect plan (just like all other legislation), the Congressional Budget Office has checked the numbers and verified that it would actually do what it claims to do. That is a Washington miracle. Whether or not you agree with the hefty spending reductions and Reaganistic tax cuts is up to you. But you should know that there are alternatives...

http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Roadmap2Final2.pdf

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/04/news/economy/paul_ryan.fortune/index.htm

TRANSITion Tampa Bay In the News

Our young-professionals-for-transit group, TRANSITion Tampa Bay, was featured in Robert Trigaux's column in the St. Petersburg Times today (see below). We're building some great momentum. Help us out by following us on Facebook and Twitter and attending our events. A website is in the works and should be launched next week.

"A fledgling young business professionals group is carving out a niche as next-generation supporters of the push for better mass transit in the Tampa Bay area. The group calls itself TRANSITion Tampa Bay.

Its co-founders include Brett Milke, 24, and Brian Seel, 25, (son of Pinellas County Commissioner Karen Seel) — two local University of Florida pals who now are project engineers for construction companies. Milke, who works for the Murray Co. in Clearwater, says the new grass roots effort wants to link with other young professional groups like Emerge Tampa to build more buzz for mass transit — specifically for the November ballot referendum in Hillsborough that seeks a 1-cent sales tax increase to help fund light rail and a better bus service in the county. Especially now that the feds have kick-started a high-speed Tampa-Orlando rail project.

TRANSITion Tampa Bay has an event with a speaker from HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority) Thursday evening from 6 to 8 p.m., in South Tampa at the Lime, 915 S Howard Ave. It is still pulling a Web site together, but you can find info about the group on Facebook. One economic development group lending a hand, meeting space and some introductions to the new organization is the pro-mass-transit Tampa Bay Partnership."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/area-auto-sales-sluggish-compared-to-the-national-numbers/1077222