The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

AFTER the PLP set a new standard for bad public policy recommendations, the DNA followed behind with an equally bad idea, stating that banks should reduce the principal on troubled mortgages by 50 per cent. Not to be left out the FNM now say they will offer their plan to "help". Let's hope they think better of it.

So far, this appears to be an effort to demonise the banks and setting the expectations of borrowers where they should not be. These loans were not forced on borrowers, they are volunatary and must be mutually beneficial or neither party would have agreed in the first place.

I worked for CIBC for 10 years and know how they tried to help and what good corporate citizens they are. I also know how lenient they can be and how much they get stuck for. Forcing someone else to pay is not the answer. In these trying times families need to come together for financial and moral support where possible.

Maybe they can move in together and everyone help make the payments until the homeowner is back on his or her feet. When one mortgage is settled or life begins to get back to normal the process can be repeated until all family members own a property.

Of course, there are extreme circumstances that need to be looked at more closely, but removing personal responsibility is the last thing a government should do.

One final point. The loans between banks and borrowers are contracts and politicians, or should I say governments, are to protect contracts not undermine them because they think something is not quite right. These loans were not forced on borrowers, they are volunatary and must be mutually beneficial or neither party would have agreed in the first place. If the bank makes a mistake and loses, are taxpayers to bail them out? No way! Likewise, when consumers default taxpayers should not be called upon to bail them out.

At the end of the day, taxpayers will be forced to pay one way or another. Either as a result of monetary inflation that devalues the value of money or through higher taxes, or both.

There is no magic bullet.

RICK LOWE

Nassau,

April, 2012.