Web Letters: COP on the Beat

Frontline's most recent program was about the bailout, and basically Paulson couldn't make up his mind if he should bail out these companies or save them. Bailouts were really against his economic philosophy, but the prospect of economic collapse forced him to save some of these companies, but not all of them. He had no consistent plan. However, 2007 was a bit late in realizing that the middle class was in a state of collapse. The collapse on Wall Street should not have been a surprise to anyone. If you outsource jobs and industries overseas and in source cheaper labor to take away middle-class jobs, you are going to destroy the disposable income that supported two-thirds of the American market. No jobs, no disposable income, and no market. If people do not have any money, they can't buy even cheap goods from overseas. We cannot help China or anyone by purchasing goods because there is no money to buy them. "Free trade" has killed the world's economy. It is the failure of a "system" and an "economic philosophy"! Wall Street's failure is an effect and not a cause!

Pervis James Casey

Riverside, CA