Definition Of Code Of Ethics

Realtors ® Urge Regulators to Reconsider Narrow QRM Definition

At a news conference on Capitol Hill today, the original sponsors of the QRM provision in the Dodd-Frank Act -- Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) -- joined Reps. John Campbell (R-Calif.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) to urge regulators to reconsider unnecessarily high down payment requirements under the proposed QRM rule .

"As the leading advocate for home ownership, NAR firmly believes Congress intended to create a broad QRM exemption -- strong evidence shows that responsible lending standards and ensuring a borrower's ability to repay have the greatest impact on reducing lender risk, and not high down payments," said NAR President Ron Phipps , broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I.

NAR has forged the broad-based Coalition for Sensible Housing Policy, which includes 44 organizations focused on drawing attention to the proposed regulation's onerous 20 percent down payment requirement. The coalition asked for and recently received an extension of the comment period until August 1, 2011. NAR and its coalition partners have also gathered the support of 44 U.S. Senators, who recently wrote to regulators expressing their intent on QRM and opposing the imposition of a sizable down payment; 282 House members signed a similar letter.

Concurrent with the event, NAR and the coalition unveiled a white paper , "Proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage Definition Harms Creditworthy Borrowers While Frustrating Housing Recovery," an in-depth analysis of the impact of the proposed QRM rule. The white paper will be submitted as the coalition's official comments to the rule.

NAR wants federal regulators to honor congressional intent by crafting a QRM exemption that includes a wide variety of traditionally safe, well documented and properly underwritten products.

"As written, the proposed QRM rule violates congressional intent, makes home ownership more expensive for millions of responsible consumers and jeopardizes the fragile housing recovery," Phipps said. "We urge regulators to reconsider the proposed QRM definition to help hard-working, creditworthy Americans continue to realize their dreams of homeownership.

American Counseling Association Weblog » Blog Archive » Prayer in ...

I was delighted to see Ryan Neace [ACA Blog ‘Prayer in Therapy an Ethical Primer] reply so carefully and thoughtfully to my proposition that prayer should never be used in therapy (unless it is in the context of a specific faith community). One of the opportunities of the ACA blog is to engage in dialogue with fellow counselors. Ryan’s response gives me an opportunity to understand another point of view and clarify further points I have not presented clearly enough.

First of all, concerning ethical thinking: all ethical thinking involves adopting a model or metaphor from human life (a kind of synecdoche) to guide one’s answer to the decision-making question, ‘What is the right thing to do in this situation?’ The Yale ethicist H. Richard Niebuhr in his The Responsible Self conveniently identifies and describes 3 such models that have been used through the ages for ethical discussions: 1. Man-the-law-maker (Aristotle used this model in his discussion of citizenship; many faith communities use this model as they define the conduct required of their members (This is the way they order their community—e.g., the Ten Commandments); 2. Man-the-maker/fabricator (This is the one most of the ACA ethical pronouncements assume as it defines the ideal counselor which we as counselor try to emulate); and 3. Man-in-dialogue/responder (This metaphor has been used more recently, especially by individuals outside any specific community). Note that these three models are incommensurable. I have witnessed too many ethical arguments which are ultimately futile because the participants were adopting different models.

Since this is an ACA blog, we are talking about a particular community of individuals that call ourselves counselors and belong to the ACA. The ACA has rightly developed a code of ethics to help define who we are by what we do or don’t do. Someone outside this community has no ethical obligation to follow this code. This code defines who we are and most of its statements assume the ‘man-the-fabricator’ model where, like a cabinet maker, we picture the ideal and we decide what is right or wrong on the basis of how closely it helps us match that idea. Some of the code, however, seems to slip into one of the other models—which I feel as jarring but, perhaps, necessary.

Ryan’s ethical primer gives a good description of the second model—man-the-fabricator—when he notes that ‘ethicality is experienced and evaluated on a continuum.’ That’s exactly what this model implies. Nothing is either ‘black or white’. The use of visual metaphors such as ‘my vantage point’ (ala, NLP) is also a clue that man-the-maker is guiding the discussion: a cabinet maker has a vision of the ideal and works to realize that vision.

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