The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure may have done more harm than good, according to some economists and real estate experts. The program was aimed at helping homeowners stay in their homes. But in many cases it just delayed the inevitable, which cost taxpayers and the homeowners and lengthened the crisis. “We have simply slowed the foreclosure pipeline, with people staying in houses they are ultimately not going to be able to afford anyway,” Kevin Katari, a hedge fund manager, told the New York Times.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke blamed regulatory failure, not the Fed’s low interest rates, for the financial crisis, the New York Times reported. “Stronger regulation and supervision aimed at problems with underwriting practices and lenders’ risk management would have been a more effective and surgical approach to constraining the housing bubble than a general increase in interest rates,” Bernanke said in remarks to the American Economic Association. Some lawmakers contend that the Fed’s monetary policy was a key contributor to the crisis, because it encouraged reckless borrowing and lending.
Kansans rank high on religion, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life. Kansas was 10th in worship service attendance, as 48 percent of residents surveyed said they attend a service at least once a week (compared with 39 percent nationally). Kansas was 13th on the importance of religion, as 61 percent said religion was very important to their lives (56 percent nationally). Kansas ranked 14th in both belief in God and frequency of prayer, as 77 percent of Kansans said they “believe in God with absolute certainty” (71 percent nationally), and 62 percent said they pray at least once per day (58 percent nationally).
