I couldn’t help but chuckle when I watched a video of Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), saying in a speech this week that the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) “is not a scam.”
Watt’s remarks came during a town hall-style event in Atlanta designed to bolster HARP participation rates, which have fallen far short of expectations. I think any time a government official has to explain that a government program is “not a scam,” it’s sort of comical – but at the same time, sort of disturbing, because it could be interpreted to mean that the public’s distrust of government programs is on the rise.