More than half of U.S. borrowers who received loan modifications on delinquent mortgages defaulted again after nine months, according to a federal report.
For every insoluable market-based problem, there's an unworkable government program designed to solve it:
A government watchdog is criticizing the Obama administration for establishing a "meaningless" goal for its flagship mortgage assistance program.
The report issued late Tuesday by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, says the Obama administration is measuring the performance of the program by a questionable standard.
At the program's launch in February 2009, Obama officials said it would help 3 million to 4 million homeowners. But with only 170,000 borrowers completing the program so far, administration officials now emphasize that the plan's goal is to merely offer help to those millions.
I'll spare you the rest of that sad story. This mortgage assistance program was designed by the same geniuses who've just delivered us health care reform. Perhaps the new standard for determining the effectiveness of health care reform will be the number of patients doctors thought about treating but had to turn away.