Why the rush to settle? There are two principal arguments being made for letting the banks off easy.The first is the claim that resolving the mortgage mess quickly is the key to getting the housing market back on its feet.The second, ess explicitly stated,is the claim that getting tough with the banks would undermine broader prospects for recovery.Neither of these arguments makes much sense.The big drag on the economy now is the overhang of house ...

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Why the rush to settle? There are two principal arguments being made for letting the banks off easy.The first is the claim that resolving the mortgage mess quickly is the key to getting the housing market back on its feet.The second, ess explicitly stated,is the claim that getting tough with the banks would undermine broader prospects for recovery.Neither of these arguments makes much sense.The big drag on the economy now is the overhang of household debt, largely created by the $5.6 trillion in mortgage debt that households took on during the bubble years.Serious mortgage relief could make a dent in that problem;a $30 billion settlement from the banks,even if it proved more effective than the governmentâ??s modification program, would not.So when officials tell you that we must rush to settle with the banks for the sake of the economy, donâ??t believe them. We should do this right

Authors Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Authors Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.