I don't know when I've seen a collection of letters to the editor that covered the waterfront so well.
Published: April 6, 2010To the Editor:
Re “I Saw the Crisis Coming. Why Didn’t the Fed?,” by Michael J. Burry (Op-Ed, April 4):
Indeed, there were many people besides Mr. Burry who saw the economic crisis coming. I recall reading several economists’ warnings in articles and blog posts.
The former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan’s arrogant denial of these voices reveals how much economic theory has become an article of faith rather than an analytical instrument. The nation remains at peril as long as free-market ideologues trim the facts to fit their preconceptions.
Kevin R. McNamara, Houston, April 4, 2010
•To the Editor:
Michael J. Burry asks how Alan Greenspan missed the rampant abuses and ludicrous underwriting practices in the mortgage market. This is an echo of the “failure of intelligence” in the Iraq war, and countless other examples of government officials abandoning critical thought and backing indefensible policies.
Our legislators and regulators are not stupid or incompetent. Rather, the problem is that they respond to the demands of well-financed special interests, regularly putting aside the common good to facilitate private gain. When things inevitably go awry, the public is treated to a “special investigation” that ends by letting the responsible parties off the hook with the conclusion that no one could have predicted the sadly all too predictable outcome.
Bart Coughlin, Dedham, Mass., April 5, 2010 The writer manages family-owned commercial real estate.
•
To the Editor:
There are many who blame the citizenry for getting subprime mortgages, but people trusted what they were told, and there was an adage, “you’ll never have money if you don’t own a home.”
There are those who blame people who got in over their heads for racking up credit card debt when there was no option if they wanted to buy food or to pay the gas and electric bill.
Yes, some game the system, but some, like a woman I met, cried because she had two kids to support and three jobs and no health insurance.
Aside from this, the cost of living has outstripped Main Street’s ability to maintain a solid standard of living, and that’s been going on since the Reagan years without being addressed. Now we’ve added outsourcing and vast unemployment to the picture.
Washington should talk to the people on their own turf. Alan Greenspan wasn’t the only one who wasn’t listening. Having some heart as well as serious thought: addressing issues is the only game in town if we’re going to fix our ills.
Nancy Gerson, Bergenfield, N.J., April 4, 2010
•To the Editor:
Re “Hedge Fund Pay Roars Back” (Business Day, April 1):
It is immoral and un-American for the top 25 hedge fund managers to pull in a collective $25.3 billion in one year. That these billions are presumably not even treated as income for tax purposes but are counted as capital gains and taxed at lower rates is unconscionable.
Can we have true democracy and promise for the future when there is such outrageous wealth and desperate poverty side by side in a country that purports to be egalitarian?
Everyone knows that a billionaire has instant access to and influence on any elected official from the president on down to city council members. The poor have little power, especially now as they struggle with lost jobs and fewer public resources.
The United States needs tight regulation of the entire financial industry and a progressive income tax that hits hard at the rich.
Ann Singer, Berkeley, Calif., April 4, 2010
•To the Editor:
The top 25 hedge fund managers took home an average of $1 billion each last year (Business Day, April 1). The same day I read that the global community has pledged $9.9 billion over the next three years for disaster relief in Haiti (“Billions of Dollars Are Pledged for Haiti, but Skepticism Remains” news article, April 1).
Something is terribly wrong here.Anthony Rogers, Cambridge, Mass., April 1, 2010
Well said, all!
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