Stabilize House Values
To The Editor:

To most Americans, recession is a personal threat. The constant drumbeat of fear of losing one's employment or home is what people hear. The possibility of not being able to pay the mortgage is as personal as it gets.

Terms including stagnation, consumer price index, cost of living index, GDP and others are foreign and indiscernible and meaningless to many. The pundits' bandwagon of doom increases the impression of a falling sky, particularly when no one is offering a lifejacket. Absent is a plan that addresses the problems that created the risks.

The Federal Reserve continues to cut short-term interest rates, which have not impacted long-term rates that define mortgages. As a result, those facing increasing interest rates are unable to refinance their homes. The action by the Fed serves the interests of the business community, who realize that reduced short-term interest rates will benefit their companies within six months.

The resulting devaluation of the greenback means little to Americans who cannot conceive of a European vacation. The present situation results from many factors, including a trillion dollars spent in Iraq. The hammer that unhinged the economic downturn is the housing market. With depressed housing values, a lot of Americans have been sucked into the subprime debacle.

Applying bandages or platitudes to these wounds only slows the bleeding. It is time for a program to be sponsored that stabilizes house values. Only then can this looming crisis come to an end in a way most Americans will understand. Edward Horn Baldwin, New York