Our Homeownership Society: Is It Coming to an End?

After months of processing the input from the Conference on the Future of Housing Finance, as well as countless hours of speaking with various lobbyists from innumerable organizations behind the scenes (resulting, no doubt, in the premature death of many thousands of $250 bottles of wine), the Obama administration finally unveiled its plan for the future of real estate finance.

Or, rather, it unveiled not just one, not merely two, but three plans.

There are some persnickety evildoers who might consider such a thing a "total lack of leadership." They would be dead wrong. Leadership doesn't necessarily mean loudly leading from the front; it could also mean the quiet leadership of letting people choose where they want to go, then following along claiming to have led them there in the first place.

So what are the three plans? You might call them the "Let's Hope the Republicans Go For This," the "We're Not Real Sure, Either," and the "Let's Just Make It Palin's Problem in 2020."