Flexible thinking averts meltdowns

To avoid another meltdown, Rep. Joe Walsh should see a psychologist. He needs to learn that most psychopathology is caused by rigid black and white thinking. Life is full of gray areas.

The lack of government regulation in the derivatives and credit default swap markets allowed investment bankers to sell poor debt to unsuspecting investors. If the investors knew the debt was as poor as it really was, they never would have bought it, which means the original loan companies would have been stuck with it and they would have been out of business in a few months.

Some government regulation is needed, but at some point too much is bad. Joe Walsh and his ideological cohorts need to be flexible in their thinking and realize that some government regulation is needed to keep greed in check.

These ideologues fought against and succeeded in keeping secondary debt markets from government regulation. The market would have worked if the original loan companies would have been held responsible for their loans and they would have if investors in the secondary market knew what they were buying.

Ron Mengarelli

Gilberts