Rethinking boom and bust

Re “Better off in 4 years? Unlikely,” news analysis, Jan. 19

At the core of “bust and boom” thinking is the belief that markets are self-regulating and that government is supposed to remain on the sidelines and allow business to pursue profits and wealth that would trickle down to the working classes.

We have repeated the mistakes of our elders in believing that unchecked borrowing and faith in the free market would lead to easy wealth and an ever-expanding “boom” of production growth.

We will need now to relearn the lessons of frugality, hard work and postponement of gratification that the “bust” will require.

These will be hard lessons indeed.

Jean Legere

Los Alamitos

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The Times did a great job analyzing the debt-and-bubble economy of the 2000s.

But why not take one more step to ask how we can fix the economy for the long term? In recent years, there has been more insecurity and more debt among the bottom three-quarters of American wage-earners. People did not yearn to sign up for subprime loans -- their low incomes meant they had to.

We now have a chance to fix the economy by pressuring President Obama and the Democrats to focus on restoring equal opportunity.

Tax the rich more (especially those who make millions pushing hedge funds and other shady ventures), promote unionization, lift the minimum wage and create 3 million good jobs every year for the next eight years.

Frank Strickler

Gardena

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If The Times is really able to predict the future, please e-mail me the winning lottery numbers.

If you cannot, why do you waste precious front-page space on what at best is idle speculation and at worst dangerous fear-mongering?

Robert C. Holmes

Pasadena