Bob Menendez

The Chair has been extremely liberal here

I think the way you have to deal with negative equity is by doing principal reductions.

That is going to have an impact on the market.

We do not need more piling on. We need to incentivize the market, not de-incentivize it.

We get this housing market moving again.

If we do not take an aggressive approach and force people to say, let us align the incentives...

And what would you want to see in that respect, the number of individual properties that could be----

A plan for unemployment is a plan for housing.

Thank you very much, Mr. Nielsen.

Thank you very much.

In my view, we need to do even more to fix the housing market, get the broader economy moving again, and create jobs.

I think they really are trying to, with the conservatorship and with FHFA, are trying to figure out a long-term profitable arrangement that will benefit the taxpayers.

What about the--I raised this with the previous panel--about the QRMs, the 20 percent? It seems to me we take out a huge class of individuals in the country who could be responsible borrowers and help us in this process.

But we would have to change HARP from where it is now to accomplish that.

But I would assume--I understand what you are saying, but I would assume the conservatorship, ultimately its goal is to maximize or limit, actually, the scope of the liabilities at the end of the day.

It is the American taxpayer at the end of the day.

Well, thank you all very much. It is a broad swath of ideas.

I think it is one of the most innovative ways to try to get out of the negative equity problem.

I urge you to pay careful attention to the relationship between housing and the overall economy.

If it does not, what is the consequences of that, briefly.

I think we definitely need to deal with that.

I would hope all of us are focused on that as the number one job before the country, getting people to work.

It is important to note that 25 to 27 percent of all homeowners have little to no equity.

It is hard to be optimistic about economic growth if the housing market remains in its present status.

We need to fix the housing market to get the broader economy moving again to create jobs.