As a game designer, I can tell you that my knowledge of and understanding of the current economic mess we're in stems only from these few things:

• What I read on a handful of news sites,
• Conversations and emails with my brother-in-law, an economics professor,
• Some basic game-design theories about how to create level playing fields and  lengthen or shorten the length of game,
• Having bought a home with my wife four years ago, and opting NOT to take on some rediculous loan that loan officers were telling me I could get.  Thank God.

So here the question; why can't we use the $700B to buy 25% stakes thousands of individual mortgages? 

I understand that the derivative market is what collapsed on Wall Street, and that it's enormously important to keep that going, BUT, it still seems to me that the best way to solve the underlying problem - the sub-prime mortgage issue - and prevent this housing crisis from going any further is to help individual homeowners stay in their homes.  If they are not forced to sell their houses in a downturn, then the housing market isn't flooded at the worst time, everyone else's home values don't drop and people don't walk away from underwater mortgages.   That is, it seems like we need to keep people IN their homes to prevent this downward spiral.

So, here's my Game Designer's solution.  You all are free to poke holes in it.
 
Homeowners would apply through the bank that holds their mortgage.  banks are much better suited to dealing with large numbers of clients than the US Government is.  Besides, they got us into this, so they can get us out.

If the application is accepted, the US would pay down the mortgage by up to 25% of the value of the loan.  The bank would assume all costs for this transaction.  The homeowner's monthly payments are reduced accordingly.  In the end, the bank ends up with an instant infusion of cash from the US Government, the homeowner has a reduced mortgage payment allowing him or her to avoid foreclosure and bankruptcy, and best of all, the home does not go on the market thereby reducing the value of the neighboring homes. The housing market has a chance to stabilize, and Wall Street can begin to breathe a little more easily about the value of the paper they hold.
 
Whenever the home is sold again, the US government earns a return on the taxpayers' money as if they had a lien on the home.  If the home's value has dropped, the US only gets the money that they paid in, but if the home's value has increased, the US retrieves 25% of the home's new value out of the sale.  If the homeowner wished to buy back the 25% stake, he could, but under the same rules: he must always at least pay back the original amount of money the government paid in. 

So, what, if anything, are our leaders doing to keep people in their homes?

(Tune in next time to hear my ideas on the Minimum Wage.)