Why Bailouts Fail

For the most part, MortgageKeeper folks are “glass is half-full” types. But a recent rather “glass is half empty” commentary by Neel Kashkari, head of global equities for Pimco and a former assistant Treasury secretary who ran the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) until 2009, turned our heads.

Mr. Kashkari maintains that homeowners are losing their homes to foreclosure usually because they own more house than they can afford, or because they are out of work. The latter idea supports what our MortgageKeeper Homeowner Status Report is telling us every quarter–more folks look to MortgageKeeper applications for job referrals than for virtually any other category. While this may not be completely surprising in a down economy, the fact that Mr. Kashkari distilled the foreclosure problem down to “too much house + unemployment + too little savings” was an interesting take.

We wish Mr. Kashkari had mentioned that help with everyday bills and expenses–both beyond the scope of federal foreclosure programs–is much needed as well. MortgageKeeper’s applications work hard every day to fill in these gaps.