Let free market be free
Re “Bailout? Just do nothing,” Opinion, Sept. 26
Bravo to Joel Stein and his observation of the Wall Street bailout that President Bush is demanding. We’ve been through this before in the 1980s and ‘90s with the Keating Five and the S&L; fallout, and again with Michael Milken and his junk bonds. It is time for the free market to be free, and let the chips fall where they may. Taxpayers cannot be expected to bail out yet another bunch of white-collar crooks because their get-rich schemes finally hit the wall.
The Bush administration is pushing this deal down our collective throats. George W. is the guy who said “No child left behind” and watched the U.S. education system fall just shy of a Third World country’s. Bush said weapons of mass destruction were the reason we attacked Iraq. No WMDs and billions of dollars later, we are still mired in his war. Bush got it wrong on Katrina as well. Now Congress and the American public are supposed to scurry to do his bidding one final time.
The CEOs and financiers are laughing all the way to the bank.
John Zavesky
Riverside
Stein’s idea is the right one, but for the wrong reason. It is “the system” that is stupid; if we don’t bail it out, then this so-called mighty nation held up by debt will crumble and we will be forced to allow a new global system.
The right path might be realized only when this system fails completely. It seems scary, but in the end it will be less scary than to continue with the “house of cards” we have erected for ourselves. Jack Waddington
Santa Monica
Government should keep its nose out of our business and the free market.
Since FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society injected socialist cancers into American society, they have metastasized. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle is a prime example.
The massive, $700-billion bailout of worthless subprime mortgage assets simply confirms how inept big socialist-style government is and adds to what could become a terminal financial meltdown of our country. Sadly, too many people have come to depend on easy credit and giant handouts that hurt them in the end.
The country should undergo financial therapy with tight credit and more pay-as-you-go rehabilitation. Indeed, by being free of unreasonable government interference, regulations and mandates, the free market can work just fine. It is already showing signs of recovery, such as Bank of America buying Countrywide Financial, Warren Buffett shoring up Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase acquiring Washington Mutual.
Meanwhile, Congress should eliminate the capital-gains tax, pass a comprehensive energy bill that will create jobs and make us energy self-sufficient, then go on a long-term tax-and-spend reduction diet -- and stay out of our lives.
Dan Jeffs
Apple Valley
