From a comment to another QotD
It actually helps to have some experience in the mortgage business. Unlike Joseph Stiglitz, Martin Feldstein, Glenn Hubbard, and others who have written op-eds and influenced policy makers, I actually know something about the track record of giving delinquent borrowers a “break†by modifying their mortgages. What lenders have found is that, even in good times, loan modifications just set borrowers up to fail again. Maybe in the confines of your faculty office you can design a program that should work in theory. But in the real world, we observe failure in practice.
But, Mr. Kling, when you’re getting paid six-figures to write theories that give the media types AND the political types warm fuzzies when they repeat them, why should it have to work in the real world. That just spoils it.
When the model and reality conflict, it’s likely not reality that’s not working correctly.