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Something the security industry should get behind

Something the security industry should get behind

The NBFAA, CSAA, SIA, et al, should get behind the Treasury's effort to freeze mortgage rates, in an attempt to staunch the record levels of foreclosures. With the builder market already in the tank, residential alarm companies need to both find ways to increase new business and stem attrition. I'm fairly certain people don't pay alarm bills when they're being evicted. On a personal level, however, I can't say I'm totally in favor of my government bailing everyone out from their terrible decisions. This, right here, might be my favorite paragraph from a nationally syndicated news story all year: "We are working aggressively and quickly, utilizing available tools and creating new ones, to help financially responsible but struggling homeowners," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in a speech to a national housing conference sponsored by the Office of Thrift Supervision. Now, I'm sure there are some homeowners who are defaulting on their loans because they've lost their jobs in what is an increasingly struggling economy, but those aren't the ones in need of a mortgage rate freeze, are they? Nope. The ones who need the freeze are the ones who bought too much house because they got suckered by a too-good-to-be-true deal where they could afford the first couple of years worth of mortgage payments, and either hoped they'd get a big raise when the adjustable rate started adjusting, or just ignorantly assumed they've be able to flip the house before the new rates kicked in. That doesn't meet any definition of financially responsible I can think of. And, seriously, the federal government has an Office of Thrift Supervision? The same federal government that's spent more than a billion dollars on the effort to freeze mortgage rates? That thrifty government?

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