March 4, 2009 could be a busy day, for some. News reports on mortgages and the stimulus package provisions for banks and homeowners have people on twitter, blogs, and their phones asking, "What do I do? How do I qualify? When can I do this?" It has many others asking, "Will it work?" For some the answer is a tentative yes, but the jury is still out on the larger economy.
The Boston Globe in, Homeowners anxious for details, reports:
The Obama administration plans to issue guidelines March 4 when the program starts. Included in the plan is a change in lending rules to help as many as 5 million homeowners refinance, $75 billion to help up to 4 million homeowners most at risk of foreclosure, and a pledge of $200 billion to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help keep mortgage rates low.
While the package holds hope for some, it is not expected to be a lifeline for everyone.
...first mortgages must also fall between 80 and 105 percent of the value of their home. About 25 percent of Boston-area homeowners...would meet this debt-to-value criteria, according to real estate tracker Zillow.com.
An editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer addresses the here and now while applauding doing something rather than nothing,
...President Obama is addressing the root cause of the economic crisis in a way that should finally help struggling homeowners.
...
It's the most comprehensive effort yet at dealing with the impact of plummeting home values, which have left so many families "under water" - owing more than their homes are now worth.
The Tri City Herald, in,
Housing rescue plan is a hopeful beginning, is more tempered in its analysis and discusses President Obama's statement that government intervention would keep the housing crisis "from wreaking even greater havoc" on the broader national economy. The Herald addresses the bailout in relation to the greater economic context:
The $75 billion lifeline to stave off foreclosures for millions of Americans comes as the stock market is dropping, jobs are vanishing and some of the nation's once-iconic corporations face possible bankruptcy.
The question many continue asking is, "Given the larger economic challenges, will this work?"
The Globe article cited above also quotes Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, who said if homeowners lose their jobs, they likely can't hold onto their homes even with lower interest rates. "The storm cloud hanging over the plan is the economy[.]"
Adding a comparative international element to the looming question, Susan Cartier Liebel brought to my attention, via Twitter, this New York Times article, When Consumers Cut Back, Lessons From Japan, which looks at Japan's recent economic stimulus experience:
Economic stimulus programs like the one President Obama signed into law last week have been hampered in Japan by deflation, the downward spiral of prices and wages that occurs when consumers hold down spending — in part because they expect goods to be cheaper in the future.
Economists say deflation could interfere with the...cash handouts that the Japanese government is planning, because consumers might save the extra money on the hunch that it will be more valuable in the future than it is now.
The same fear grips many economists and policymakers in the United States. “Deflation is a real risk facing the economy,” President Obama’s chief economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers, told reporters this month.
This fear of deflation seems to square with anecdotal evidence of how people are responding to our economic crisis. Consider the following from The Wall Street Journal's,
Remembering the Dawn of the Age of Abundance: Times are hard, but dynamism isn't dead,
All of this hunkering down has stopped the great churning, the buying, selling and buying that was at the heart of our prosperity. In private equity firms, the churning was life. They bought a company, removed the fat, sold it at a profit, and bought another one. They kept moving. That's over. No one is buying now, and no one can sell.
But, Peggy Noonan's article, offers a different type of stimulus, an innovative and local one:
I end with a hunch that is not an unhappy one. Dynamism has been leached from our system for now, but not from the human brain or heart. Just as our political regeneration will happen locally, in counties and states that learn how to control themselves and demonstrate how to govern effectively in a time of limits, so will our economic regeneration. That will begin in someone's garage, somebody's kitchen.... The comeback will be from the ground up and will start with innovation. No one trusts big anymore. In the future everything will be local. That's where the magic will be. And no amount of pessimism will stop it once it starts.
Perhaps the stimulus package we need isn't only economic, but is social, too. Could our troubles lead us back to communities where people remain local and to where families grow and remain close, close enough (not 'close' defined in terms of distance only) to support each other again? Perhaps a return to ungated communities where people, instead of being locked out, are welcomed into their neighbors' lives?
Speaking personally, the town I grew up in has grown more distant to me. My mother's mother's mother down the years to my daughter have called this town home--I'm even an elected official here, but something has been missing, something amiss from my cherished youth. Don't get me wrong, there remain many friendly people and places, but many of these, surprisingly, I recall from years ago, and fewer, more recently. Today, a culture of stranger danger and selfism has made good fences more important than good neighbors. As a child, we had less, but we had more, too.
Fondly, I recall marching on picket lines with my father's union when jobs were scarce. Going to flea markets in the blue cargo van and working beside Dad for the day as we sold all sorts of things to help us get by. A cheese pizza at the Liberty, a small pub Mom was waitressing at. Fishing. Going to a single Red Sox game in Fenway Park. Our family trip to Disney World meant busting open the piggy bank we had been filling for years and six of us squeezing into a Datsun 210 while stopping at hotels along our way while checking prices for our night's stay. We played, in the neighborhood, climbed trees, ran in and outside the library. We made up our own games and enjoyed make-believe. Structure gave way to experimenting. Teachers taught with passion. Coaches placed character before winning trophies.
Years ago, while working with teens removed from their families, I became a fan of narrative therapy. Wikipedia states, "Narrative therapy holds that our identities are shaped by the accounts of our lives found in our stories or narratives." These resilient kids taught me circumstances alone don't make the person, but rather it's what you believe about yourself that matters most. It's a matter of perspective and identity. What story will define our times? What narrative will we write for future generations?
I, too, hope for a comeback, but the comeback I hope for isn't merely economic. While the stimulus plan won't save everyone, if it helps more people stay in their homes while preserving and building better communities, then it's a social investment we may all benefit from. It frames a prouder tale of hope and of help. Which story is better? Is taking helpful action preferable to succumbing to weaker woes of corruption, defeat, or a quitting attitude that it's just too late?
The narrative of our economic challenge might better be viewed through the eyes of those who landed in Plymouth with little more than hope and determination for a better life. What would they say to us? What can be accomplished against great odds when determined people, true survivors, come together? Emerson wrote of progress despite the negatives, "We see, now, events forced on, which seem to retard or retrograde the civility of ages. But the world-spirit is a good swimmer, and storm and waves cannot drown him."
Neither our economy nor our mortgage interest rates are the greatness of America. No, freedom and the opportunity for a better life have guided us true. Today provides an opportune time for us to rediscover those things that truly matter and to return to the basics. This is not defeat, we remain the land of the free and the home of the brave. As Thomas Paine declared in times of far greater peril,
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Sure, there will be those passive people who may say to others, "Make it better for me today while I go on watching or complaining." But those truly living the American dream, a dream shared by our forebearers, will join together and with a proud smile proclaim (borrowing once more from Twain), "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace[.]"
After my last COBRA post, COBRA Insurance Relief Under the Stimulus Package: New Employee Benefit Issues for Employees and Employers, I've been getting quite few COBRA inquiries from people who have lost a job. People are asking, "What do I do to get these COBRA benefits?" 
The ABA Journal post, 
Given the attention the Employee Free Choice Act ("Check Card") is generating, Parade Magazine is asking "Does America Still Need Labor Unions?" 
I'm new on 
Despite my strong reluctance to use a one time nonrecurring revenue source to make-up the difference (we had funds available from the sale of a town owned property), I thought it better to spread the cuts over a full fiscal year should any become necessary as we move forward. Had we opted to act now, we were looking at laying off 120-140 employees next week. 
Eligible employees who suffered an involuntary job loss or had a qualifying event (between September 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009) or qualified beneficiaries, should make sure they understand how this COBRA provision affects them and their insurance coverage options. Covered employers, on the other hand, have the new challenges of dealing with this program and its requirements. While employers are eligible for a payroll tax credit for the COBRA premiums paid under the Act, this Act is a major change to COBRA law and administration and thus must be taken into consideration before making any reductions in the workforce.
Today (according to the art surrounding my google search box) is Charles Darwin's birthday. Much has evolved in the intervening 200 years, including the practice of law. Yesterday, I attended the 
