Note to self

Default on house payment next month. (I wonder if it's too late to put a stop order on this month's check...)

Pathetic:

``Efforts by both government and private-sector entities to reduce unnecessary foreclosures are helping, but more can, and should, be done,'' Bernanke said in a speech to bankers in Orlando, Florida, today. ``Principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may be a relatively more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure.''

That's the Federal Reserve Chairman talking, not some wingnut with a general grievance toward the free market system. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say that there is a danger here of wrecking the housing industry for the next 20 years. Based on what both Democrats and Republicans are proposing, there's really no reason for anyone to send their lender one dollar more than they feel like from now on. The last thing the banks want to do now is foreclose (even if they're not under a federally-mandated injunction from doing it), and if you're stubborn enough, maybe they'll just knock your principal balance down to wipe out the deficiency.

This sickness of houses just goes on and on.