We may, or maybe not, be in a recession nationally which all seem to agree to be caused by an “over exuberant” housing-market bubble bursting. Bad lending practices are said to have been a big contributor and now we have a credit crunch.

The Feb. 13 editorial suggests that the newly announced “Project Lifeline” is a welcome response rather than a “heavy hand of government” approach for a solution. Good observation, but if I’m not mistaken all parties directly involved have had the option all along of getting together to try to work out new mortgage terms so foreclosure would be obviated. All Lifeline does is impose a 90-day delay in some, but not all, foreclosures.

We are in a heck of a mess because this bubble was caused by a lack of rules and regulations and oversight by the “heavy hand of government” of the mortgage and securities markets. Voluntary action and strict caveat emptor behavior, by all the players caused this mess. Now, hoping that voluntarism will get us out is the answer?

Doctrinaire ideological worship made this mess possible assuming that regulations only hinder efficient market action. Greed, rapacity and ignorance are real and the danger to everybody is real when we don’t have rules to discourage them running rampant. The horse is out of the barn and it would have been better if the “heavy hand of government” took reasonable measures to try to keep the door closed.

JOHN BORGEN
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 8:55 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.