The Obama housing plan
From the WSJ, President Obama's plan to help troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure.
"The Obama administration announced new plans to make it easier for up to nine million people to rework or refinance their mortgages, in an effort to stabilize the U.S. housing market. A central element would allow up to five million people to refinance their mortgages into more affordable products through Fannie and Freddie. The plan has three main elements: the effort to help homeowners refinance, particularly when the value of their mortgages nears or exceeds the current value of their homes; a $75 billion initiative to modify loans to make payments more affordable for as many as four million borrowers whose interest rates have skyrocketed or whose incomes have fallen; and steps aimed at driving down mortgage rates."
After seriously studying the plan, my take, quite simply, slim and none and slim left town. 
But others opine.
Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor and Professor at UC Berkeley from his personal blog, And Now Homeowners
"The government should not be bailing out mortgage lenders who should never have lent money to people unlikely to be able to repay, or borrowers who should never have taken out a mortgage loan. Under normal circumstances, government shouldn't be bailing out bankers, either. But these aren't normal circumstances. We're in an economic crisis. And a failure to put millions of homeowners on a firmer footing would send more shock waves throughout the economy."
Calculated Risk, Comments on Housing Plan
"The Obama administration doesn't understand that there were two types of speculators during the housing bubble: flippers (they are excluded), and buyers who used excessive leverage hoping for further price appreciation."
And Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture, Intelligent Loan Mods and Foreclosure Abatement
"It is not the responsibility of Taxpayers to bailout borrowers who are in over their heads, or lenders that made bad loans. … The mad attempts to avoid any and all foreclosures is counter-productive. The foreclosure process is how an over-priced market returns back to normalcy. That is what is now happening, and excess interference will only slow down the eventual return to a healthy economy."
Barry referred to his previously offered view on why governmental interference would not work in his 30/20/10 proposal
"Most of the current solutions under discussion amount to throwing obscene amounts of money at the problem, rather than recognizing what the key issues are. These approaches have several fundamental problems. The goals are less than desirable: 1) they attempt to keep people in homes they cannot afford; 2) The Paulson plan takes bad loans off of the books of poor lenders, and dumps them onto taxpayers; 3) They maintain price supports for homes that remain significantly over-priced."
And offers his solution:
30: Takes up to 30% of any current delinquent mortgage and separates it from the “main” mortgage; it goes into a 2nd, interest free-balloon mortgage, and stays on the books of the present mortgage holder;
20: The plan’s goal should be saving at least 20% or so of the current delinquent and potential foreclosure properties; Of the 5 million homes that may be late in making payments, (the first step along the road to delinquency, default and foreclosure) the process should make 20%, or 1 million homes eligible;
10: The Balloon payment comes due in 10 years, and will be treated as a 2nd mortgage, with interest charges only accruing as of October 1, 2018; it can be refinanced or paid off in full.
Here's hoping someone can actually figure this mess out.