A mortgage czar.

What is it with these big-government types and "czars"? What country do they think they live in? Yes, the Bolshevik Revolution was a disaster for Russia, but that doesn't mean that the Czar was the solution.

The confluence of several bad things:

Congressional popularity in the toilet

Greed on the part of Mortgage Brokers and Banks

Greed on the part of the mortgage consumer and zero financial planning too.

How do you deal with a "perfect storm" thirteen months before an election? Right - appoint some one to oversee the mess and of course he will need a large bureaucracy to go with it.

People seem to forget that the concept of a free and capitalistic market also gives the freedom to fail and loose everything. So, this czar is going to somehow insulate people from the effects of failure and bad or no planning: How, exactly?

The mortgage problem is exactly the same problem as the stock market failure in 1929? (hope I got the year right) that led to the great depression. People who should not have been doing so were buying on a margin. The margin calls destroyed many financially. This is what is happening here with housing - too much house, too little money to cover rate changes etc.

I don't see what a czar could do to help anyone in this predicament. just be another way of wasting taxpayers money.

People who should not have been doing so were buying on a margin.

No kidding. A lot of people treated real estate as an infinite fountain of credit. Here is what Sam Dinkin said about it last year: "That is about $800 billion we are adding to the housing capital stock and residential housing construction is just 3-4% of GDP. We can grow the US owned capital stock forever and have plenty left over to sell to foreigners." Well guess what, the fountain eventually ran dry.

Greed is a constant of human nature, and exists in all systems including govt bureaucracies. Perfect storms happen every once in a while no matter what anyone does to prevent them. The market is rapidly solving the mortgage problem as it solved the problem of corporate corruption in 2002 -- by radically devaluing affected companies. The pols and bureaucrats, who unlike businesspeople are sheltered from most accountability, will wait until the danger passes and the smoke clears. Then they will jump in and take credit by passing ill-considered legislation that does more harm than good and, not accidentally, creates new payoff opportunities for rent-seeking bureaucrats and pols. Sarbox is a lingering disaster that will sap economic growth for years to come unless we repeal it. Let's hope Congress won't be so stupid this time around, but I wouldn't count on it.

by radically devaluing affected companies

Also by devaluing the currency.

Also by devaluing the currency.

No. The dollar's decline is a years-long trend caused by Fed, Treasury and ECB policy.

This feels like a discussion with a Barbie doll.

Pull string...

"Devaluing the currency."

Pull string...

"Military responsible for Somalia."

Pull string...

"Politicians responsible for Somalia."

Pull string...

"Simberg blah blah neocon blah blah Elders of Zion blah."

(etc.)