Saturday, December 5, 2009

STATISTICAL MODIFICATIONS


NYT--AFTER months of playing pretend, the Treasury Department conceded last week that the Home Affordable Modification Program, its plan to aid troubled homeowners by changing the terms of their mortgages, was a dud. The 10-month-old program is going nowhere, the Treasury said, because big institutions charged with implementing it are dragging their feet.

“The banks are not doing a good enough job,” said Michael S. Barr, assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions. "So instead of pretending that the undersea mortgage situation is getting better we have decided to turn our attention to pretending the employment situation is improving. The good news is it is much easier to modify statistics than it is to modify your monthly mortgage payment."


'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'

Disraeli

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