[Eureka_Lead]

Did we not just go through this with freddie and fannie....

sigh...

stupid is as stupid does, and it seems that the governments of the world, most of them, cannot get out of the business of growing by making the workers pay for those who do not.

EL

[Vanders9]

The conservatives tried this before (or something like it), back in Thatcher's day. Something called mortgage income tax relief. It was basically a plan to encourage people to buy their own homes - and it worked, for a while. Much like Freddie and Fannie worked, for a while.

Of course, the law of "unintended consequences" soon kicked in. If you artificially reduce the cost of buying a home to the consumer, you are effectively putting more money into the housing market. More money sloshing around the system, chasing the same amount of commodity, inevitably means the cost of the commodity will increase. And of course it did. Housing costs in the UK spiraled. Which is why no one can afford to buy them now. And why more intervention like this is "needed".

The tragedy is that even if this "works" (and it probably will in the short term), the ultimate result will be even more expensive housing 5-10 years down the line.