Letters to the Editor

Re: 'Why bailout may be the only saving grace' (Feb. 8)

Dear Editor:

I have a lot of respect for Lou Barnes' opinion on anything financial, but I have one overriding problem with his suggestion for the government (i.e., taxpayers) to absorb or somehow subsidize bad mortgages. That is, anyone with an ounce of sense had to see this housing/credit bust coming, yet no one did a thing to stop it because too many players were getting rich off the business.

Didn't anyone in the business have enough ethical gumption to scream to the media or authorities to expose the stupidity? Yes, I know that Greenspan, et al. were all good free-marketers and sat on their hands during all this, but let's get real. This debacle is nothing short of a worldwide scam that even they could have been embarrassed enough to address once exposed for what it was. Certainly the media, which can virtually take down a president (Nixon), could have helped with this.

Now that the music has stopped and the house of cards is crashing, once again the taxpayer is supposed to step up and pay the tab. I, for one, have had enough of this nonsense. As a free-market advocate my entire life, I am sickened at the repeated boondoggles that seem to occur with some regularity in our "free markets" so that "businessmen" can strike it rich by hook or crook. Whenever a regulation is proposed, and some may actually make sense, the crooks who prey upon us join with honest free-marketers to wail against government intrusion. And then they go back to work to cook the books, hide the risk, and hoodwink anyone with a buck. Sooner or later, honest "free-marketers" need to stand up and say enough is enough, and expose the stock scams, off-books scheming, loan frauds, and other corruption that now seems to infect our capitalistic society all too often.

You want a taxpayer bailout now that the suckers have been fleeced? Go after every bad player that helped get us here. Put the corrupt ones in jail. Tax everyone who got rich with this mortgage scam including the lenders, the crooked appraisers, the financial geniuses that created CDOs and SIVs to hide risk, and all the rest. I know it won't be easy, but once the bad guys have paid and paid, then talk to me about bailing out fools in the latest bubble scam. I am tired of being played for a fool myself because I don't overextend myself; I pay my bills and live within my means. If it takes some years to get this done, I don't care.

Enough is enough.

Charles M. Mellas
Duluth, Ga.

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