Another day, another reckless throw of the dice (21)

More lunacy, this time from the USA:

President Barack Obama's plan to tackle the US housing crisis is aiming to help up to 9 million families. The plan will aim to provide refinancing to four to five million "responsible homeowners". A $75bn (£53bn) "homeowner stability initiative" will also aim to help reduce monthly payments for a further three to four million people.

He is clearly stark staring mad.

"Responsible homeowners"?? Is that the American for "hard working families" or something? The article doesn't say what the refinancing will cost on top of that*, but divide $75 billion by three-and-a-half million families (surely they can't mean 'people'?), that's $21,000 each! At today's low interest rates, that's equivalent to the mortgage on a $500,000 home. Or maybe it's spread over three years, as the article goes on to say " ... it could provide a buffer of up to $6,000 against declining values on the average home".

Either way, this makes the antics in the UK see tame by comparison. The biggest attempt so far to prop UK house prices (which has failed miserably, of course) was the cut in interest rates, which has seen savers lose about £30 billion per annum, while eleven million mortgage borrowers are saving, on average nearly £3,000 each.

Truly utterly completely barkingly insane - which is the option for which 66% have voted for in my current Fun Online Poll.

* UPDATE: The entire package is expected to cost $275 billion, $75 billion as described above and $200 billion for buying up worthless loans from Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.