Apr 7, 2008

Letters

Financial practices

Dear Editor: The lusty excesses of some in the world of finance are much in the public spotlight. So what do they do? Sleight-of-hand spin-doctoring.

My credit card company just wrote, with fanfare, to invite me "to celebrate" their new image. What's that new image? "Bright red and blue colors, dynamic new logo (and) a fresh new look."

Wow! Argh!

They promise "new products," too, but that will come later. Wouldn't we be surprised if they pledge to:

_ Teach good personal finances, including how best to incur and manage debt,

_ Urge us to pay the full amount of our bill and avoid interest and penalties,

_ Put their fees in BIG print, and

_ Remind customers that those "free" blank checks that they send each month are not free.

To the contrary, I bet that corporate greed will again trump the common good.

James Lyons,

Palo Alto



Wall Street

Dear Editor: Robyn Blumner is right on the mark when she points out how ready the administration is to abandon its purported free-market principles to benefit the rich, as in the mortgage-bailout, and also how many things we need have to be supplied by government and not by the market ["Socialized risk for Wall Street," Wednesday]. She should also have remarked on another bad effect of the preachments from Milton Friedman et al., that government is the problem. It is only recently that even the Democrats (and Schwarzenegger, to his credit) have begun to suggest timidly that we need a public works program, not just because of the general benefits, and indeed the urgent need to restore our infrastructure, but because public works create jobs and thus provide economic stimulus more directly and efficiently than cuts in taxes and interest rates. The Republicans have persuaded too many Americans that all government spending is waste, as though some wicked witch had cast a spell confining the multiplier effect to private spending.

Michael Wigodsky,

Mountain View

U.S. presence in Iraq

Dear Editor: I agree wholeheartedly with Jagjit Singh (Letters, March 28) that the war in Iraq was a huge mistake. It has cost this country in lives, money and reputation.

However, Singh is wrong to suggest a simple pullout at the soonest possible date. The fact is that we are there now, whether we like it or not, and we must deal with the consequences. The current Iraqi government is not capable of leading without American assistance at this point, and the Iraqi military and police are also not strong enough to keep the peace on their own. I too wish for an American pullout, but it must be done intelligently or it will cause more damage than good.

Stephen Fisher,

Atherton



Day worker center

Dear Editor: Apparently local city councils see no problem with funding, in fact, enthusiastically funding, a day worker center ("Los Altos to pitch in with worker center," March 27) where business is done on a "cash basis." This means, in most instances, no taxes are paid by either the employer or the employee.

Are we to believe that the members of the councils don't know this? To knowingly support a center (with taxpayers' dollars, to boot) in which taxes are evaded is illegal - just ask the IRS.

Mary Lehane,

Menlo Park



Humor column a relief

Dear Editor: Thank you for publishing the delightful column on squirrels by David Grimes that I read in the March 30 paper.

I get tired of all the articles on Iraq and political fights, so after finding and reading this humorous column, I felt like a new person. I laughed and was in a good mood for the rest of the day. It reminded me of one of the reasons I love reading the newspaper - the funny articles from Art Buchwald and Erma Bombeck, who are no longer alive, and former San Jose Mercury-News columnist Murry Frymer

Please keep publishing such articles - we need more diversity in our papers besides the drudge.

Miriam Russell,

Menlo Park