S&L; Mess

In his column (“To Find the S&L; Billions, Check Wall Street,” Op-Ed Page, April 28), Martin Mayer tries to blame Wall Street for the savings and loan mess, and foolishly suggests that if we look hard enough, we’ll find the “lost” $100 billion locked away within the coffers of the big brokerage houses. Mayer says that the financial markets stripped the money from the S&Ls; by collecting fees for various services rendered, securities sold and advice given.

In his zeal to convict Wall Street, Mayer seems to have overlooked one salient fact; selling investments and advice is what Wall Street is supposed to do! Just because some S&L; managers were too inept or crooked to manage certain investments doesn’t mean the investments themselves are bad.

Finding most of the missing cash is easy; it has disappeared in the form of lower values placed on dry oil wells or foreclosed pieces of real estate. What Mayer failed to discover were the massive footprints of the main culprit, Congress. Led by House Speaker Jim Wright, Congress has protected the crooked S&Ls; from federal regulators for more than four years. The head of the FSLIC has stated that the crisis could have been contained for less than $15 billion in 1984, but that Wright and others deliberately blocked several bills that would have done so, in order to protect some S&L; operators and their developer allies, who just happened to contribute to their campaigns.

Most S&Ls; are run honestly, and most investment vehicles are legitimate, but they must be regulated by officials who are allowed to enforce the rules. In the end we are all to blame for electing a Congress that is only interested in getting reelected.

GARY S. RICE

Solana Beach