Regarding “Keep government out of the marketplace,” It’s a Gray Area, Aug. 16:
Dear Jim,
You missed the boat with your conclusion that the government should be kept out of the marketplace. I will remind you that our nation is suffering from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression because our government was so blindly inactive in the world of capitalism. Ever since Ronald Reagan took over the reins of executive power, he, with congressional approval, began deregulating the major financial institutions — namely banks, insurance companies and the like — opening the door to widespread and unchecked corporate policies and practices that have crippled our country. The Clinton administration accelerated the potential for economic disasters with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.
It has always been in the best interest of the American people to have a government that monitors the marketplace against corporate abuses of power and policy — a government that makes decisions based on the needs of Main Street, not Wall Street. In such a system, congressional leaders and the president are not in the back pocket of corporate America. Presently, this is merely an audacious hope.