What free market?

SCOT LEHIGH ("Lessons from the meltdown," Op-ed, Sept. 24) blames the current financial crisis on a failure of the free market, ignoring that our current economy is anything but free. The mortgage and financial markets have been heavily controlled by the federal government for decades, and that is why they failed.

In the name of broad social welfare policy aimed at helping everyone own a home, the federal Community Reinvestment Act forced lenders to give loans to unqualified borrowers. Meanwhile, the corrupt quasi-governmental entities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the artificially low interest rates enforced by the Fed, and the semi-official policy of bailing out institutions thought "too big to fail," led to the situation where millions of Americans bought homes they couldn't afford and Wall Street funneled billions of dollars into bad investments.

The government forced lenders into bad decisions, rewarded them by manipulating the market, and then bailed them out when the mess came back to bite them. The federal hand in the market set it up to fail, not "zealous free-marketeers."

More regulation is not the answer. It's clear that the mixed economy - the unfree market - is what has failed. The answer is a fully free market.

CHARLES FESTEL
Wakefield