Failed mortgage refinancing program extended

By any measure, the so-called Home Affordable Refinance Program has been a dismal flop, with only an estimated 200,000 or so distressed homeowners managing to get a permanent mortgage loan modification from their lenders. Not anywhere near the roughly 5 million homeowners the Obama administration originally said it hoped would be helped by the program.

So, of course, what does the government do? Why, it extends it! The initiative will now last until June 2011. The program was set to wrap up at the end of this June.