Problem:  The housing market is still a drag on the economy.  But policymakers say we don't want to simply force the banks to eat homeowners' debts, because doing that would undermine the industry. They also don't want to have the government simply eat the losses, because it'd be a political problem — the feds would be "telling the people who are making their mortgage payments that they're going to have to pay for the people who aren't making their mortgage payments."

Possible interesting solution: 

The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but the bar is high: plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and cost next to nothing.

One proposal would allow millions of homeowners with government-backed mortgages to refinance them at today's lower interest rates, about 4 percent, according to two people briefed on the administration's discussions who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about the information.

A wave of refinancing could be a strong stimulus to the economy, because it would lower consumers' mortgage bills right away and allow them to spend elsewhere. 

There are apparently other ideas under consideration, but the refinancing approach, the details of which still need to be worked out, would have the biggest bang for the buck: homeowners, many of whom are currently under water, would stand to save $85 billion. They'd still have a mortgage payment to make, but they'd find it easier to afford and would have more money to spend on other things.

Economist Christopher Mayer at the Columbia Business School explained, "This is the best stimulus out there because it doesn't increase the deficit, it accomplishes monetary policy, and it reduces defaults in housing."

I like it.