Banks Should Swap Debt With Homeowners to Ease Foreclosures, Ranieri Says

"Ranieri and Kenneth Rosen, a University of California economist and chairman of Rosen Consulting Group in Berkeley, published a five-point plan last month urging banks to reduce debt for qualified borrowers and recognize losses on second mortgages and home-equity lines of credit. They also favor having the mortgage market continue to be backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or a "successor entity.""