Sen. Cranston and Ethics Hearings

OPEC caused a crisis in the world when it decided to tell us who owned the oil fields. Shortly thereafter economic disruptions reverberated throughout the world. In the United States, this translated into inflation and an upset in a long-standing stability in interest rates.

Caught in this storm, savings and loans, having loaned money out at low rates on 30-year paper, were caught in the bind of paying higher rates on short-term deposits. Faced with the problem of salvaging this situation, the Administration and Congress decided that the “easy way” would be to use the current “Reagan thinking” in free market systems, which was so popular with the voters. That is, they allowed S&Ls; to feed at the trough of “free enterprise” (unfortunately without the cost side factors in place).

So far as members of Congress were concerned, if it didn’t work, hell, they could blame the President.

What we are seeing in the Keating Five hearings is the result of this policy. The fissures in our system--and our leaders--would have been produced by stress of any kind similar to the S&L; debacle. A load was placed on our backs, and some were found wanting.

Is the lack of perspective in this matter part of the continuing overall self-serving nature of our times?

GLENN SPENCER

Sherman Oaks