Three Faces of Foreclosure

Shifting burdens. When a foreclosure takes place, the family must move. The real problem is: They have nowhere to go! The number of homeless families is on the rise -- shifting the housing burden to taxpayers. Meanwhile, foreclosure sales leave empty houses in nice neighborhoods -- an invitation to vandalism and destruction of all property values.

There has been a lot of discussion in recent months about who "deserves" this fate of foreclosure. But who will be the judge? And if this recession continues, how likely is it that more unsuspecting homeowners -- maybe even some in your family or neighborhood -- will be caught in this sinkhole?

I'm a true believer in free markets. But the free market in housing was destroyed long ago -- when Congress pushed banks to make loans to people who were not qualified, and forced Fannie and Freddie to underwrite questionable mortgages, and when the Fed kept interest rates artificially low to encourage the real estate bubble.

All of those actions kept the housing boom going. And kept getting Congress re-elected.

It's time for Washington to stop blaming lenders, and borrowers, and everyone but themselves. And it's way past time to set up a sensible system that at least has a goal of keeping people in those homes until the economy turns around. And that's The Savage Truth.