This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The only way for the American economy to recover is for the sector that brought about the collapse, the housing market, to rebound. For that to happen, the interests of banks, investors and many politicians must be made subordinate to the national interest.

President Obama is trying but, facing resistance from Republicans in Congress, investors on Wall Street, bankers on Main Street, and even some homeowners on Elm Street, it isn't happening.

The president cannot order banks to lend more money or command that Wall Street write down the value of millions of mortgages that are underwater through no fault of the individual homeowners. He cannot drag families into refinanced mortgages at rock-bottom interest rates when they might feel that their own interests would be better served by simply walking away from their upside-down mortgages.

But if those things do not happen, then the value of every home, including yours, will be depressed by a glut of foreclosures and short sales. Segments of the economy that depend on a healthy housing market, whether they swing hammers or deliver new appliances, will remain stuck in neutral.

Obama's efforts to move the market in the right direction began early in his administration with the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. It dangled $50 billion in incentives in front of lenders if they would rewrite, Obama hoped, 9 million mortgages. But a still nervous marketplace only took advantage of $2.4 billion in incentives and reached, at most, 1.7 million families.

Monday, Obama tried again. The new plan targets homeowners with mortgages backed or owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, who are employed and current on their loans but who now owe more on their homes than they are worth. Such folks, a million or so families, may be those in the least need of government assistance, though shrinking their monthly payments could put more money into circulation.

But it is all Obama can offer. Congress, controlled by Republicans who seem to want nothing more than the economy to fail so Obama will fail, won't go for anything bolder. Banks, once burned, are shy to lend even to people with good credit if their homes aren't worth what is owed. And nobody has been bold enough to suggest a massive buy-down of mortgage debt, whether at taxpayer expense or by making the banks face up to the results of the millions of unwise loans they made while the bubble was still expanding.

But something so bold may be needed to bring the housing market back to life. And it might well cost less than months, or years, more of homes foreclosed and fortunes erased.