“Society is more important than your anger”

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No one makes the case for a government bailout better than Lou Barnes, the mortgage broker/pundit who writes an insightful and passionate weekly roundup of the mortgage world. When he writes this week that ‘society is more important than your anger,’ he’s talking to us -- bloggers and commenters who have argued -- often with some evident anger -- for a market solution to the mortgage meltdown.

Lou’s argument is simple: the market is broken, banks are in real trouble, the market will not fix itself: ‘The acute economic problem today is the functional bankruptcy of the Western banking system. Losses in trillions of dollars of weird assets have impaired systemic capital; central banks have kept the system liquid, and undoubtedly will continue to do so, but nobody has an idea how to get the system to make new loans. You have to have capital to do that, and we’re fresh out.’

Then he speaks directly to us: ‘The hostility to rescue is pervasive among American civilians, at center the blind fury at all participants in the housing run. The desire for blame and punishment is stronger than for self-preservation.’

What will it take to make the government act? ‘I think we’ll have a financial accident -- a morning when a market cannot open, or a few large institutions fail...’

Your thoughts? Insights? Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com