Tuesday, October 28, 2008
seeing red
Another in a series of letters to the editors. This time, one that got completely garbled during editing, so the real one goes here.
Original:
I hardly know where to start with regards to Neils Veldhuis' 'In Defence of Greed' (Sat Oct 18th). Perhaps with this: having the Fraser Institute defend greed is like having a vulture defend a decaying body.
It is interesting to read in the same section the article about Brooksley Born's ('Countdown to Meltdown') attempts to warn the various levels of government about the danger of derivatives and how she was re-soundly shut out from making any regulatory changes.
Mr Veldhuis, six pages later has the gall to state: 'It wasn't greed that fuelled the crisis; banks, borrowers, and investors simply acted rationally and in their own self-interest, following a set of rules created by poor government policy'. I literally gasp at the self-deception. It was greed, pure a simple, that drove the banks, investors, and their friends to push for de-regulation, block further regulations, and then to push those boundaries that were still in place past their limits.
There is so much that is offensive in this article: the naked admiration of greed masquerading as self-interest, the desperate fawning over and defense of the uber-rich, the sheer selfishness of his vision.
I am always willing to give other views a chance and welcome reading thoughtful opinions from various sources, but in this case the Fraser Institute has done a disservice to all readers and thinkers by providing this nasty, brutish article.
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As published by the Sun.
I hardly know where to start, with regard to Neils Veldhuis's Saturday opinion piece, "In Defence of Greed." Perhaps with this: Having the Fraser Institute defend greed is like having a vulture defend a decaying body.
The Weekend Review section opened with the article "Countdown to meltdown," about Brooksley Born's attempts to warn various levels of government in the United States about the danger of derivatives and how she was resoundingly prevented from making any regulatory changes. Six pages later, Veldhuis has the gall to state that "it wasn't greed that fuelled the crisis; banks, borrowers, and investors simply acted rationally and in their own self-interest, following a set of rules created by poor government policy."
I gasp at the self-deception.
// posted by Bob Walker @ 4:48 PM 
