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Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors, believes the proposal only partially addresses the housing industry's problem. Although it may help reduce foreclosures, it does nothing to stimulate demand for homes. "Stabilizing housing involves two parts. First is to raise the demand so that it eats into inventory. Second is to reduce supply, which means lessening foreclosures. This plan addresses the second. I hope it works better than prior foreclosure-mitigation plans...
Rick Sharga, vice president of marketing for RealtyTrac, is cautiously optimistic that the program will help slow foreclosures. "One of the things that's prevented more success on these [loan-modification] programs is, we've had a principal-balance problem, and this program, on the face, would seem to resolve that." He says it's long been believed that homeowners would be able to support mortgage if they were based on current market values. Right now, many can't refinance because their loans are worth more than their houses, he says...
Alex Barron, founder and senior research analyst at Housing Research Center LLC, is more bearish. He says this latest program of foreclosure prevention is just another way to delay rather than solve the problem. "My head is spinning," says Barron. "They keep exacerbating the problem. All this government interference is simply prolonging the inevitable." Barron says the housing market needs to correct on its own at this stage - "and the sooner it's allowed to do so, the sooner we can get on to a real recovery...
...taikonauts have to meet near impossible standards that are meant to weed out the less-than-flawless. Chinese astronauts cannot suffer from chronic sore throats or runny noses. They mustn't have food restrictions, strong regional accents, ringworm, cavities or scars. Bad breath, body odor and a snoring problem are all immediate disqualifiers. And if China's spacemen are expected to satisfy an unlikely string of qualifications, so too are its new spacewomen - with two notable additional criteria. China's first two female reserve astronauts, selected earlier this month from a pool of 15 female fighter pilots, were required...
...potential solution, the report proposes not that female pilots begin having children earlier, but that members of both sexes store reproductive cells for future use. For women, banking eggs would not only eliminate the theoretical difficulty of damage to reproductive tissues by cosmic radiation, but also solve the problem of age-related fertility decline. (See pictures of the world's space programs...