I need some brains here to get their arms around this issue and understand it. Care to try?

Gary,
If you have not figured it out already, the banks are the new leaders of the U.S.
The government is feeding them money hand over fist with their QE program, and the banks are making a fortune.
As far as the low life, slime sucking Wells Fargo, they will do anything to make a profit - whether it be screwing the mortgage holder or the taxpayer.
Now, realize, if they are screwing the taxpayer, it is with the OK of the U.S. Government. Bush started the bailouts, Obama continued the bailouts.
Both just handed over billions to corrupt companies - AIG, B of A, Citi, Goldman Sachs, J P Morgan, Morgan Stanley and allowed them to change the accounting rules so they do not have to properly value the mortgages that they presently have on their books!
Banking and mortgages will NOT survive as we know it. There is too much that the FED and Treasury have done with quantitative easing, buying the junk mortgages from the banks, then letting them buy those junk mortgages for pennies on the dollar. The debt for the government is just out of control.
When interest rates go up, and we are both old and wise enough to know that they will, the whole system will collapse. There is nothing holding it together right now other then government money.
So, yes, the 30 year mortgage will probably go the way of the dinosaur. Home buyer will have to come up with 20% down, like the way it used to be, before we got crazy with debt.
Home buying is a privilege, not a right. Like anything else, one has to work hard for ownership of land.
As far as any of the banks are concerned, right now they get what they want.
This may change, and when it does, they'll pull the plug on the stock market, and down the tubes it will go. 2008 or worse when it happens.
The FED is already signaling a shortening of the Q2 easing, and if they actually do it, a mortgage will be the least of the worries for the citizens of the U.S.
Hope that gives you an idea of my views.
30 year mortgage, 15 year mortgage - it is the least of the worries when it comes to the banks and the government. There is soooo much underhanded, transfer of wealth to the banks that it just amazes me.
Why Americans have not taken to the street like most of the Arab world, is something I am still trying to figure out.
Cheers,
thebigmozey

Well said. I hope that the frugality of citizens will overcome the inflation, but we will see.