The True Cost of the Mortgage Bailout

The American economy has pulled through some tough times before. But until now, we were almost always pulling together -- even though only some of our citizens were directly affected by recession or economic transition.

This time around it's different, because we have two huge segments of the population directly opposed to each other -- and they are fully aware of the very high stakes if one gets bailed out at the expense of the other.

Homeowners are squaring off against ordinary investors in this mortgage crisis. And since both sides command a lot of votes, this is becoming more than a financial crisis. It's growing into a political divide that will be the first of many, now that we live in an era when the government has fewer and fewer resources to solve such problems.

Taking Sides

On the one side we have more than 2.64 million homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments. We have 53,609 families who actually lost their homes in the month of October. We have another 224,451 families who received news from their lenders in October that foreclosure proceedings have started against them. And we have another 1.5 million Americans with adjustable-rate mortgages that will start resetting to higher monthly payment in January 2008. ...