Letters

Regarding the OpINion Online column that ran Dec. 24, I suggest that "armchair advisers" (journalists, academicians and the like) who casually criticize Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, et al., aren't doing them — or their readers — justice.

Press coverage of crisis has been superficial

Regarding the OpINion Online column that ran Dec. 24, I suggest that “armchair advisers” (journalists, academicians and the like) who casually criticize Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, et al., aren’t doing them — or their readers — justice.

It is obvious that we are/have been in a new and challenging financial-market environment. Crisis decision making never gets it all right, and it isn’t yet clear what “right” is.

Constructive input is one thing, but “drive-by shootings” are counterproductive. You are by no means alone.

Much (but not all) of the financial press on these topics has been quite superficial. Ultimately, most of us keep reading that which informs, illuminates or stimulates us to think productively.

Here is to more of the latter in 2009.

Rosalie J. Wolf

Managing partner

Botanica Capital Partners LLC

Brock Group

New York

The system let us down

Your OpINion Online column (Dec. 24) pretty much said the same thing most of us in the financial business would say if we had the forum. Thank you for that!

I’m so very disappointed in the way this whole mess has come upon us. Quite frankly, those of us in the field are so busy being “compliant,” getting signatures and making copies, we didn’t have time to watch the C-Span inquisition of Fannie Mae in 2003. Here we are years later trying to explain to our clients that the system let us down.

Keep it up.

Ralph W. Lunt, CFP, CFC

Strategic Capital Advisors Inc.

Cleveland, Ohio

Personal accountability should be discussed more

As a longtime and loyal reader of InvestmentNews, I appreciate the column “Main Street is also accountable for this crisis,” which appeared in the Dec. 8 issue.

I am a 15-year veteran fund/annuity wholesaler who has spoken at many client events on behalf of financial advisers during the past few months. These include 31 town-hall-style Q&A sessions for 35 independent advisers and almost 2,000 retail investors.

The goal at my talks has been to calm investors and offer some perspective.

Not many are willing to call it like it is. I will be using the column at future talks.

Personal accountability needs to be discussed more often between advisers and their clients.

Thanks for helping me to get the ball rolling on this painfully true topic.

Matthew Grishman

Regional sales vice president

Rocklin, Calif.

MetLife Inc.

Main Street isn’t to blame for the financial mess

I take strong issue with Jim Pavia’s column “Main Street is also accountable for this crisis,” which appeared in the Dec. 8 issue.

People will make decisions based upon what they think is in their best interest and borrow money at the lowest price for which they can obtain it. Unfortunately, most people don’t understand what their best interest is and thus are led by the media, businesses and politicians who put out false and misleading information.

What these poor individuals also didn’t understand is that there was tremendous collusion by the government and business leaders in perpetrating a huge scam on the American taxpayers. Bad lending practices were encouraged by the government; in some cases, what banks were forced to do was just short of extortion.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and the Congressional Black Caucus (to name a few culprits) greased the skids while receiving huge campaign contributions. Franklin Raines, former chairman and chief executive of Washington-based Fannie Mae, got rich (not to mention scores of other top-level financial industry scammers), and the masses on Main Street got screwed.

Meanwhile, our ignorant press sat by as Rome was burning.

Memos are now surfacing, showing repeated warnings to the brass at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of McLean, Va., yet they bought the paper, and the executives collected their huge bonuses.

When the hearings were held in 2003 and 2005, and certain members of Congress called for tighter regulation, our mainstream press ignored these calls for fiscal sanity. Yet those who blocked reform go unpunished.

Main Street’s only fault in this mess is that it put its trust in a bunch of thieves who are still laughing all the way to the bank. The sad part is that many people still don’t understand what happened and who did it to them.

They just re-elected many of the same clowns who caused this debacle.

Stephen N. Mathieu

President

Legacy Financial Solutions Inc.

Manchester, N.H.