Senator Dick Durbin, in his recent letter (Letters, April 22), concludes his justification of mortgage cramdowns with the following: "But doing nothing as foreclosures continue to increase will not end this recession." He seems to be saying that doing this particular something -- namely allowing "bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of mortgages which would otherwise fail" -- would somehow stop the economy's slide. It's amazing that the senator believes that flipping that one little switch will do so much to put hundreds of thousands of people back to work.
Economists can't settle on three things that caused the crisis, so the implication that Senator Durbin, after a long career in law and politics, knows the one thing that can fix it is incredible on its face. As hard as it is to predict the short- and long-term implications of cramdowns on mortgages themselves, something by definition less complicated than the broader United States economy, I find it hard to believe he can predict the ability of that one rule change to end the recession. On second thought, considering the typical Washington hubris, maybe Senator Durbin's confidence isn't that amazing after all.
Matt Hutchison
Chicago
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