Job cuts at Bank of America; teaching about 9/11; a jobs plan that leaves out housing

Bad bank bets

Re “BofA plans to cut at least 40,000 jobs,” Sept. 10

First, Bank of America makes a bad business decision and buys Countrywide as it is rapidly going down the tubes. Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide’s founder, retires on his millions. Bank of America pays the paltry fines levied on Countrywide.

Next, the taxpayers bail out Bank of America. At the same time, Bank of America fails to assist people with loans they can’t pay on houses that are losing value (instead of gaining in value, as implied by their loan provider).

Now, those same taxpayers are further victimized by either losing their own jobs or having to compete with 40,000 other unemployed people because Bank of America made bad business decisions. Meanwhile, the bank’s executives are paid ridiculously as the company declines. And Warren Buffett bails them out?

Something is terribly wrong here, and I suspect it has as much to do with values (or the lack thereof) as economics.

Carolyn Ziegler-Davenport

Pine Mountain Club, Calif.

As Republicans, Democrats and the president struggle to create jobs, BofA sabotages their efforts by planing to add 40,000 to the unemployment rolls. I don’t dispute the right of a private company to lay off as necessary. However, I find it outrageous that a bank that taxpayers bailed out exacerbates a national problem on such a large scale.

BofA, where is your patriotism?

Joseph Soter

Orange

Teaching about 9/11

Re “A challenge for teachers and students,” Sept. 11

I hope there was more to the coverage of 9/11 that Brent Smiley presented to his eighth-graders than The Times reports. It is true that “Saddam Hussein was a thug who gassed his own people, and the Taliban oppresses girls,” but neither of these facts has any connection to the 9/11 attacks.

Hussein had no ties to Osama bin Laden. We went to war against Afghanistan because the Taliban harbored Al Qaeda terrorists.

I would hope that these students would have received a much more accurate history of the 9/11 attacks.

Henry Lipson

Sherman Oaks

The article reminded me of my own original reaction to 9/11 when I was a middle-school English teacher in Los Angeles. I found a quote in a newspaper account from a 10-year-old New York schoolgirl. I blew it up into a big banner and mounted it on one of the classroom’s walls. It read:

“I think we should get to know the terrorists and understand why they hate us so much. Otherwise, if we just take revenge, the killing will go on forever.”

This reaction became the basis of our class discussion. My students seemed open to finding a deeper meaning in the event than the “they hate our freedoms” propaganda. We learned a lot from that prescient 10-year-old.

Bob Loos

Silver Lake

There has been much talk about how we as a nation stood together united in the aftermath of 9/11. Or, in other words, folks were nicer to each other. Well, yes and no.

After the attacks, the American flag became the national icon. And soon, there was a flag pin, which many chose to wear, including former President Bush and members of Congress. Some would chide others who were not wearing the flag pins as unpatriotic. There were disagreements over picayune issues.

Life was not a bed of roses during the immediate aftermath of 9/11. In fact, much of the behavior was asinine. Nevertheless, my hope is that the party-line bickering will eventually come to an end, and sooner rather than later.

JoAnn Lee Frank

Clearwater, Fla.

Boom, bust and housing

Re “U.S. job plan is short on aid for housing,” Sept. 12

The idea that the president can do much about the economy is questionable, but the idea that he and Congress can somehow fix the “depression in the housing market” is misguided.

We got ourselves into this by allowing lenders to inflate the value of our housing stock. The public bought the dream of getting rich quickly through housing, and now we are paying the price. When housing is no longer affordable to middle-class people, the market will crash.

There are a lot of banks, real estate agents and mortgage brokers to blame for this, but we also have ourselves to blame. The president is right not to focus too much on this part of our failed economy.

David Johnson

La Crescenta

So The Times thinks the president’s job plan ignores the single biggest problem stalling the economy: the housing market. How about a little lesson in simple arithmetic? It goes like this: Jobs equal money.

When you have money, you can buy houses. Not only that, you can also buy electricians (jobs), furniture (jobs), appliances (jobs), carpenters (jobs) and more.

I could go on and on, but hopefully by now you have gotten the picture (more jobs).

Sandra Dannenbaum

Venice

When the left goes right

Re “Shift to center seen in Capitol,” Sept. 11

State Democrats are not alone in acting like Republicans. L.A.’s mayor and some City Council members are now advocating cutting or eliminating the gross receipts tax on businesses. President Obama has told the Environmental Protection Agency to back off on emission reduction deadlines.

Will no one state the obvious: that Democrats have had it wrong and Republicans have been right, about taxes and regulations that throttle the economy and kill jobs?

Jeffrey C. Briggs

Hollywood

USC’s Dan Schnur says, “There’s tremendous pressure on these members to do something to look like they’re creating jobs.” The audacity of it all.

Government does not create jobs. When bureaucrats intervene, employment opportunity disappears. You must allow the private sector to come up for air. Get out of the way and everything will sort itself out.

Daniel J. McNamara

West Hills

GOP? Simple

Re “Republicans jab at Perry during ‘tea party’ debate,” Sept. 13

The GOP debates have revealed one common attribute of all the candidates: their unwillingness and inability to handle complex issues.

Social Security has problems? Just call it a Ponzi scheme and advocate getting rid of it. Global warming an issue? Deny the mainline scientific evidence and call it bogus. The economy in trouble? Let’s cut taxes and choke off the supply side (that worked really well with Reaganomics). Candidates appear cantankerous and inept? It’s the media’s fault.

This is not the type of leadership the U.S. requires in times of complex troubles. We need individuals who have the courage, honesty and intellectual sophistication to address our country’s problems.

Ted Carmely

Sherman Oaks

Power outage

Re “Utilities hunting for answers in failure of blackout safeguards,” Sept. 10

California is more susceptible to power interruptions because of our reliance on imported energy. We import electricity from Arizona, New Mexico (friends in Los Alamos used to complain that when we turn on our lights, they get more smog from the emissions of generating plants) and Columbia River dams. Stringent state regulations and excessive litigation make it extremely difficult for California energy producers to build new generating or transmission facilities.

Our economy cannot improve without changes in state government.

James E. Owens

La Cañada Flintridge