Uncle Sam's Mortgage Co.

Editor,

If the Fed and Treasury buy distressed mortgages at a discount as planned, priority number one should be to renegotiate each and every one of them to a non-punitive and reasonable value that the debtor can afford to pay.

This will keep distressed homeowners in their homes and help bring down house prices, the inflation of which lies at the heart of the current financial crisis.

The needs of the banks boil down to one: account for and write down their actual losses so that the financial system will arrive at its bottom and -- from a fresh regulatory perspective that is designed to protect the public not Wall Street sharpies -- start doing business again normally.

re: "Fed and Treasury Offer to Work With Congress on Plan for Vast Bailout" (9/19/2008)