Bernanke, Ben

I would say that there's a variety of views about principal forgiveness within the Federal Reserve System and there is no official position. There seems very likely that principal forgiveness could be helpful depending on how it's structured in reducing delinquencies.

    There are also some potential drawbacks. One of them is the fact that the amount of negative equity in the United States is about $700 billion, which is enormous. And so there's no conceivable program that is gonna put everybody in the country above water.

    And so I think the issue then becomes, if we have $20 billion or $25 billion or whatever the number may end up being in this settlement, you know, what is the most cost effective way to help as many people as possible? And I think that's an ongoing debate.

    But with respect to principal reduction, I've -- you know, I've spoken about this in the past, and it certainly has some advantages.