Web Letters: The Greatest Swindle Ever Sold

When I first heard about the bailout, I spent hours online every day reading everything I could find. I went to all the financial websites as well as opinion sites. It didn't take long to conclude that the imminent crash was due to collusion and fraud among the mortgage companies, banks, real estate firms, appraisers, investment companies and bond-rating companies. These institutions had leverage themselves into oblivion, with the blessings of the SEC, because they could collect excessive fees every time some piece of paper changed hands. And it didn't matter if that piece of paper was worthless or if the AIG insurance couldn't possibly cover the totals.

And although 90 percent of the American public objected to TARP, our clueless Congress passed it anyway. It also doesn't matter if the stock market currently is inching upward. The rest of America is moving in the other direction. Despite the sunny media, this economy is dreadful. More houses go into foreclosure, more jobs are lost, expenses and taxes are skyrocketing, and credit cards are maxed out just for the basics. Revolution is beginning to sound good to me.

Sharon Jarvis

Laceyville, PA

I am reminded of a line in The Godfather by Mario Puzo:

"One man with a briefcase can steal more money than 100 men with guns."

Paul B. Evans

San Diego, CA

The TARP funds also provide funds to Goldman and Sachs, Morgan Stanley, who "invest" in commoditites causing oil and gasoline prices to go up... Meantime, foreclosures continue at a record pace, and those needing the help the most, don't qualify.

alan annisgard

Mill Valley, CA

Thanks to Andy Kroll for writing this article. But as I began to read it, I was getting angry at the pervasive injustice and the complete disregard for the American people. I get so angry that I did not finish. Is anyone really listening to Kroll and other writers who see things as they really are? Am I the only one who is livid, livid at this financial fiasco and the likes of Geithner who are too deeply beholden to Wall Street?

It was Reinhold Niebuhr who said, "The American people seem to be very inert in the face of the sufferings to which they are being subjected." It seems another major disaster is needed for the American people to wake up and rise up to this injustice, but I fear that by the time they do, it will be too late.

George Carenzo

Indiana, PA