An NYT explanation of why loan modifications aren't working

I always find Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times business columnist, to be very user friendly and readable. Here's her article from yesterday's New York Times about why loan modifications aren't working out so well. An interesting quote:

"The terms of loan modifications also make them especially failure-prone because the government calculates “affordability” (how much mortgage debt a borrower can actually manage) in a highly unusual way — raising serious questions for the housing market over all and for the program’s effectiveness for borrowers. For example, in devising what it considers an affordable mortgage payment, the program doesn’t account for all of a borrower’s debts — the first mortgage, second lien, credit card debt and automobile payments. Instead, it calculates affordability using only the borrower’s first mortgage payment, insurance and property taxes."

The article also goes on to address the issue of high-interest second mortgages held by major banks.