Unregulated lending practices triggered free-market mess

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2008

You have got to love the high-wire act of Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve as they navigate the free market shamble created by the libertarian philosophy of former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan and the Bush administration ("Fed tries to grease the economy's wheels," Cover story, Money, Wednesday).

We now have the largest rate cut in 18 years at the same time that we're entering the danger zone of inflation. Can you say stagflation?

It's ironic that the economic meltdown is brought to you by Republicans who think they know how free enterprise works. Just as in Iraq, their arrogance has been exceeded only by their incompetence, as the worldwide market crash illustrates.

Their kind of free enterprise is when government watchdogs are turned into...