Obama Package Aims to Stem Foreclosures

President-elect Barack Obama said his economic recovery package will include a program to stem foreclosures along with new regulations to prevent the speculation and over-leveraging that fueled the housing boom. The package will include a "strong set of new financial regulations in which banks, rating agencies, mortgage brokers, a whole bunch of folks, have to be much more accountable and behave much more responsibly," Mr. Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Dec. 7, 2008. "We've got to have transparency, openness and fair dealing in our financial markets," he added. The former Illinois senator also stressed that foreclosure prevention is going to be a "top priority" of his administration. He noted that reducing foreclosures would help stabilize the housing market and financial institutions.