China for the World

Imagine if the mayor and police chiefs of Chicago or Los Angeles came forth with a program for limiting gang violence by paying gang members to join the police and stop their violent activity. Imagine what the reaction of the surge supporters would be. Imagine what the payouts to the insurgent groups in Iraq could have been used for in the United States (does New Orleans still resonate with anyone?). What happens when the money to pay these groups in Iraq runs out, or, better still, what happens if a group such as Al Qaeda or the Iranians comes in with an offer of more money? What kind of allies will these insurgents be, whose allegiance must be bought and paid for?
Jeffrey J. Sieburg
Lodi, Wisconsin

Let me see if I have this correct: with middle-class families unable to send their children to college because of dwindling federal loans; with America's infrastructure and economy crumbling; with thousands of schools in dire need of repairs and updating, millions without health care and returning vets not getting what they need or deserve, the U.S. government is giving insurgents and terrorists roughly $24 million a month to rat out other insurgents and terrorists. Did I miss something?
Steve Weitzler
Middleton, Massachussetts

The March 24 cover photo of Capt. Tim Wright and his men on patrol, and the accompanying story on the Iraq War, illustrated not only the scary warrior image of the Americans that Iraqi citizens face but also what seems to be a growing dependency among Iraqis on the occupation. This dependency is not only on our military presence but also on bribes, coercion and fragile alliances. The efforts of Gen. Petraeus, Capt. Wright and others to negotiate and present a more humane face to the U.S. occupation are admirable, but we remain a foreign occupying force. That has been the problem all along.
Ron Blackmore
Hamilton, New York

Plan B for Financial Crises
Your April 14 article on the subprime crisis ("High Finance Laid Low") raises the question: Should the U.S. government rescue the subprime sufferers or should it be left to the players to sort out matters? Since the average citizen is a victim of this mess, the government feels obliged to step in. Economists like Robert Samuelson seem to rationalize that such financial epidemics are not new and that, as in the past, solutions will be found eventually. Would the government and those responsible (careless bankers included) have the same attitude if this were a health fiasco—maybe a poor treatment option that misfires and leaves many dead or incapacitated? Could we learn some lessons in the preventive mechanisms that governments have instituted for such disasters? In the free market, governments feel obliged to stay away and leave the players to make the rules, referee the games and declare the results. When the results lead to public wounds, the government is forced to chip in. This is an unintended malady of the free-market system. Taking cues from the active health-management role that governments assume, there must be a "rule book" for the financial markets as well. The bureaucracy has enough hands and brains to come up with the antidote for the machinations of audacious bankers. One might also charge the banking customers as accomplices. How can we expect a 20 to 25 percent return on our investments when bank interest rates, even in the best of times, are about 5 percent? Collateralized debt obligations, derivatives and other yet-to-be-invented poisonous knives are results of this greed. Effects of the housing trickery are already spreading to commodities sectors like oil and gold. The rise in prices in these sectors is outside of supply-and-demand effects. Is anyone watching? Who will be the whistle-blower?
Bala Shankar
Singapore

Financial Gain at Greater Cost
"Mismanagement 101" (March 24) highlights the effect of poor management on our sorry economic situation. In my opinion, here is the cause: many of the CEOs of banks and businesses are the offspring of the '60s generation of rebels. Their kids grew up with a passion to achieve fame and fortune by whatever means possible. Risky accounting practices and selfish motives drove some financial institutions to offer—if not push—credit to unworthy clients, both individual as well as corporate. Ignorance and indifference on the part of federal government officials concerning sound monetary policy have brought the value of the dollar to a new low, and no one in charge seems to have a clue about how to fix it.
Arthur L. Pengelley
Fairhope, Alabama

The Trouble With Wireless
Reading your April 14 article "Power from a Distance," I was quite surprised—and disappointed—that your writer makes no mention of the safety issues that wireless power raises. Several recent studies have shown that electromagnetic fields create health hazards and many modern wireless devices using radio waves of various frequencies are under scrutiny by medical authorities. Creating electromagnetic fields in our homes should not only raise the question of efficacy but also of the risk posed by exposure to them, especially if they're strong enough to provide power from one room to another. There's no doubt that such technology could potentially be revolutionary, but awe of a technological achievement should not prevent a writer to wonder if such advances really come with no "cords" attached.
Pauline Lena
Paris, France

Paying Debts With Daughters
As the father of two teenage girls, I read "The Opium Brides of Afghanistan" (April 7) with disbelief. I could not imagine sacrificing a daughter to life with a middle-aged opium dealer for the sake of settling a debt. I was also struck by the irony of the line: "Islam forbids charging interest on a loan, but moneylenders in poppy country elude the ban by packaging the deal as a crop-futures transaction." Charging interest for a loan is forbidden, but selling a daughter isn't?
Michael J. Davis
Palmer, Massachusetts

© 2008