While the government is spending trillions buying up debt and fixing failing companies balance sheets, they are doing precious little to solve the real problem – too big a supply of homes and too little demand for them.
There are estimates that if all things go well, housing supply and demand will be back in balance in 2012. I really don’t want to have to wait that long to get the economy at full speed again. Do you?
Well, I am a subscriber to John Mauldin’s Frontline Thoughts . It is an excellent, free weekly email on the economy. This week, John highlighted a plan put forth by Gary Shilling and Richard LeFrak that would dramatically increase the demand for housing and not cost the taxpayer a dime.
The plan is pretty simple. The U.S. lets in over a 1 million immigrants to this country a year. For the next few years, there needs to be the added requirement that each one of these immigrants purchase a median priced home or better. Upon doing so, they will immediately be granted temporary (5yr) green card status.
Let me be clear: The plan is not to open up the floodgates to immigrants. The plan is to require the already incoming immigrants to make an immediate impact on the economy.
You can read more about the plan here.
Personally, I would rather the government stop trying to manipulate market forces altogether. But since that obviously isn’t going to happen, I would much rather they do something that costs taxpayers nothing and cuts to the heart of the problem.
I urge you to contact your congressmen about this proposal. You can find out who is representing you here. (http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/)
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