Word: romney
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Shortages and soaring prices are the outcome of many forces, but the problem right now is that, as Secretary Romney notes, "housing is the first casualty of the anti-inflationary fight." By making credit scarce and costly, the Government has choked off many of the sources of mortgage funds. More than any other U.S. industry, housing depends on private long-term credit. When interest rates rise rapidly, as they have this year, the financial institutions that normally provide most of the credit run short of money. Savings and loan associations and mutual savings banks have been hard hit by withdrawals...
...Romney's Promising Plan...
What can be done to bring down the costs and expand the supply of living space? Housing Secretary Romney figures that one solution would be to enlist industrial expertise and capital to improve the technology of subsidized housing for low-income and moderate-income families. Though his program goes by the corny name of "Operation Breakthrough," it is nonetheless quite promising. Under it, 650 companies have submitted proposals for mass-producing houses or component parts. Many of the entries come from big firms that have hitherto been little involved in housing, including Republic Steel, General Electric and Union Carbide. Next...
...Romney's program is no panacea, but it is likely to attack some of the real obstacles to better and cheaper shelter...
...technology may help builders to avert an almost certain shortage of skilled labor in the years ahead. More important, the localities offering sites have agreed to suspend their building codes and zoning laws for the Breakthrough models. Nothing quite like that has happened before, and Romney obviously hopes to use the program for a persistent attack on local barriers to housing. Later on, he expects localities to combine their building plans into giant orders so that industry can justify capital outlays for factory-produced housing. To induce municipal officials to get together, he can offer them favorable treatments on their...