To the editor:

I have quite a different view of the AIG debacle than Mr. Hayes (Public Forum, March 23).

I believe the mortgage crisis that started the snowball effect on the U.S. economy was the result of too much regulation, not too little. It was a case of the government overreaching into business practices that had worked for centuries and would still be working today if not infringed upon. I’m speaking specifically of loans made to individuals with horrible credit, and in some cases, no employment and no income.

Quoting the Sept. 30, 1999, New York Times: “Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people… In moving, even temporarily, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s.”

It’s interesting the person responsible for the language that exempted bonuses from a bill that limited executive salaries in companies receiving bailout funds, Democrat Christopher Dodd, received over $280,000 in campaign donations from AIG.

Perhaps some of the anger that is being fanned by the current incompetent administration should be directed at the persons responsible in the first place, rather than executives who had a private contract with a private company. I suggest a glance in the mirror.

Robin Jones,
Tonganoxie