Willem Tissot, a former professor of French language, literature and translation, also a former Business Periodicals Indexer with the H. W. Wilson Co. in New York, has translated, among other things, Hans Ree’s "The Human Comedy of Chess", a book by a Dutch Grandmaster about the lives of great chess players and the history of chess. He has also translated work by Dutch novelist Tim Krabbe.

Willem, who is a registered translator with the Nederlands Literair Produktie en Vertalingenfonds in Amsterdam, enjoys translating fiction and general nonfiction from Dutch and French, and will also contract for editorial and proofreading work, as time permits. Recently, he edited his wife, Caperton’s, "History between the Lines: Women’s Lives and Saranac Lake Customs".

Following is one of Willem's articles that was published in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise on April 3, 2008.

"I have long wanted to find the smart-ass who invented cumulative interest and hang him from the tallest tree. This, along with the even niftier variable rate mortgage, is the trick that in recent months has played such havoc with American household budgets as to force many of them into foreclosure or even bankruptcy. Financial schemes like these have converted many formerly wise, conservative bankers into hard-sell usurers.

Excessive profit taking is not the only problem facing today’s borrower. Another factor making lending failure-prone is the rigidity of the very terms in which loans and mortgages have come to be written. Both in terms of time and profit loans tend to be set in stone, carrying an intrinsic, built-in threat of bad credit, loss of property, social and geographic dislocation or worse.

An immediate and lasting adversarial relationship between lender and borrower, customer and financial institution ensues. In many cases, fixed and arbitrary terms of variable rate mortgages stipulate rigid schedules of 'resets' guaranteed to put the borrower up against prohibitive odds.

In a society defined, by its very president, as an 'Ownership Society', is it any wonder that the pressure to succeed, the pressure to own, have made easy victims of citizens whose only housing alternative is an almost equally expensive rental in a dubious neighborhood?

This state of affairs could change, with profit for both sides, with a different approach from the ground up. Both the terms and the practice of lending could be re-thought and rebuilt into a long-lasting, flexible financial relationship. Clearly the goal in lending, especially in mortgage lending, should be for both sides to avoid, even at some cost, the total failure of the transaction.

Let us take the case of a variable rate mortgage: a family paying a $1500 dollar-a-month could, after a few years, face a sudden increase of $500 or $600 a month. Rather than letting this often prohibitive increase go into effect automatically (with a better than even chance the client will default), the mortgage contract could stipulate a conference, a meeting, or even a conference call, timed well in advance of the reset, in which a representative of the lender, preferably the same person who originally wrote the loan, would, on the basis of up-to-date financial and economic information, revisit the terms of the loan with the borrower.

Economic life, as well as the national economy, being as fluid and variable as they are, wouldn’t it make sense to recalculate the real solvency of the client before a substantial reset? At this time, the borrower could disclose any changes in his/her present financial situation. A simple formula, factoring in such variables as current inflation, regional cost of living, income, plus considerations of health, family expansion etc. could help calculate a feasible increase in the mortgage payment.

In a few cases, the client having fared unexpectedly well, the reset could be even higher than the original, resulting in ultimate savings of interest. If, as has been the case for so many homeowners recently, the burden of the originally planned reset is higher than what the borrower can sustain, a negotiated compromise could preserve both the bank’s investment and the family’s home. In this event, the bank would have several options. It could postpone the reset by a reasonable period, if the client’s income is soon to increase. If not, a reset level could be arrived at by mutual agreement, which would have a realistic chance of fulfillment. The lender would not necessarily have to write off part of its originally calculated profit: a year or more could be added to the terms of the loan. Family members or other sponsors could be added either to guarantee the loan at its term, or transforming it into a generational loan, not that unusual in Japan and some other countries, where children will inherit the property and continue payments on the parents’ loan.

In cases where even this proves impossible, the lender would sometimes indeed agree to write down a portion of the loan, but this could be done on a provisory basis: later scheduled 'reset meetings' could reveal an improvement in the client’s fortunes and payments could rise accordingly.

The intention here would be to accompany the borrower on his journey to successful ownership by way of a series of timed re-negotiations which would take into account his/her personal circumstances as well as fluctuations in the regional and local economy. This graduated approach to lending could, I believe, in most cases guarantee the lender a reasonable profit, and avoid foreclosure for the borrower.

The key would be an ongoing, collaborative business relationship between lender and borrower. This may necessitate a greater presence and involvement of lenders at the local level. On the other hand, a face and a known agent connected to the mortgage would act as a stimulus to pay in a timely manner.

The graduated, negotiated reset could seriously reduce the lender’s risk of major loss, while changing the borrower’s adversarial perspective, resulting in a financial partnership. Much of the dislocation, financial losses on both sides, even dereliction of neighborhoods and cities could be avoided.

A similar 'rolling negotiation' technique could be applied to other forms of lending, such as automobile or college loans. A final profit for the lender can still be agreed upon, although in some cases flexibility may be preferable even there. The road to fulfillment would become more of a common journey with opportunities along the way.

There is an additional opportunity for the lender with this approach: a series of time-scheduled meetings, and repeatedly updated client information will create an opportunity for expanded financial counseling, which in turn will strengthen the financial relationship. For example, as people become more actively involved in the management of their personal retirement plans (401-K) many will be looking for professional guidance in this regard. A successful, financially healthy loan customer will make a likely client for the lender’s financial planning services.

If handled wisely, this approach will indeed help stabilize the national economy, and might have helped prevent the serious economic downturn poor lending practices have triggered in this country."