Sunday, November 9, 2008

1% Fix!

I have a quick fix that will rebound the economy and cost Tax payers nothing:

1) A mandatory moratorium on all foreclosure from now until Jan. 1st, 2010.
2) All loans and lines of credit are automatically reduced to 1% interest.
A) Home/Mobile Home Loans: 1% fixed for 50 years.
B) Car/Boat/RV/etc. Loans: 1%
C) Credit Card Loans: 1%
D) Business Loans: 1%
3) What ever the absolute value of the loans provided at a lender's peak, that lender must continue to lend at least 75% of that (the lender will now have a renewed source of revenue from clients not defaulting on their debt and making payments they previously weren't, thus the lenders can lend this money out). So, if in 2003 a lender lent $100 Million, the lender must lend out $75 Million this year, preferably to business so that business can continue to pay their employees and employees can continue to pay their debts.

Here is how this would work if I only had a $200,000 home loan.
At 6% interest for a 30 years, my monthly payment would be about $1500.
At 1% interest for 50 years, my monthly payment would be about $500.
This would be a $1000 infusion into the economy each month ($12,000/yr).

If there are 100 Million homes out there, and if the U.S. average price of a home is $200,000, then the U.S. could see an influx of $1.2 Trillion into the economy!

Now lets just say my calculations are flawed, which they probably are because I don't know if the U.S. actually has 100 Million homes that have mortgages. I just guesstimated that the average family size is 3 people and being we have a population of about 300 Million, I assumed that each family lives in their own home. I also didn't take into account the number of rented vs. owner occupied housing.

So lets just cut my first figure in half ($1.2 Trillion) and we are still investing $600 Billion into the economy, all of which will be spent at grocery stores, electronic shops, restaurants, car dealerships, and home improvement stores (because Americans, thankfully, are bad savers). This will create more jobs, more income to be spent, even more revenue for businesses, which keeps the cycle spinning.

That's my solution; is it perfect? Probably not; but it make sense to me. What's your solution?