Letters to the Editor 04/26/2017

To The Editor:

We are nearing the 10th anniversary of the Great Recession. How are Trump and his billionaire cronies celebrating? By reversing or scaling back the regulations that were put into place to prevent the kinds of risky practices that caused the recession in the first place! Of course! Perfectly logical! The far right never met a regulation they didn't hate, regardless of common sense.

Do people think these actions were Obama/Democrat/partisan? These regulations were developed by the best economists in the world in direct response to the practices that triggered the recession, similar to the rules that were instituted after the Great Depression. Anyone who remembers sub-prime mortgages, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, too-big-to-fail, etc., ought to realize these regulations should be strengthened, not weakened. We should be evolving toward a more stable economy by learning from past mistakes.

Scaling back these regulations is not fiscally conservative - on the contrary, it's very risky. As long as the risk is aimed squarely at the middle and lower class, and away from the wealthy elite, I guess the supposedly conservative far right doesn't mind gambling, after all.

If some of Trump's support came from folks frustrated with the slow pace of economic recovery, how does that square with policies that risk another downturn? Slow recovery would seem like Nirvana compared to another recession.

Stuart Scofield