The Obama administration deserves credit for quickly ending the housing free fall. In particular, Obama empowered the Federal Housing Administration to ensure that households could find mortgages at low interest rates even during the worst phase of the financial panic.

Too-easy credit and millions of bad loans made during the U.S. housing bubble paved the way for the financial calamity and Great Recession that followed. Today, by contrast, credit is too tight. Mortgage loans are particularly hard to get, creating a problem for the housing market and the broader economy.

The extension and expansion of the payroll tax holidays for workers would be number one on my list and key to avoiding recession.

Yes. I don't think it would be appropriate at this point to raise taxes on anyone, certainly not in 2011.

The most important point is, in a time of crisis, there is no way out but for the government to be bold and aggressive.

A home is still the biggest asset that most Americans own.

Global central banks are working hard to lift their economies through an aggressively easy monetary policy. The ECB [European Central Bank] and BOJ [Bank of Japan] are buying tens of billions of bonds and other financial securities each month in an effort to stimulate their economies, which is pushing down rates everywhere, including in the U.S.