This is going to come as a shock to you, Skymutt, but I agree with everything you've said.  The interventionist policies you've outlined in your post will indeed make the situation worse, but that's going to take some time to manifest itself.  My point to Kevin was that the situation that precipitated the current downturn could have been prevented had Congress had the stones to do what needed to be done to rein in the GSEs.  IMHO, he's barking up the wrong tree on that one.  All the other measures you mentioned will have about the same effect as pouring water on a gasoline fire.

Regards,
Scott Perry