Under the Obama plan, some people still will lose their homes, and probably deserve that fate for borrowing far too much money. The lenders who enabled those borrowers, and the investors who provided the funds to the predatory lenders also will lose.

The centerpiece of the plan, though, helps homeowners who did nothing wrong except live in a country where housing prices are plunging.

It allows homeowners who are current on their payments to refinance their mortgage to a lower rate but cannot because they don't have the 20% equity now required. They don't have 20% equity not because they bought too much house, but because the value of their house has dropped so violently.