George,

My take on the 700 BILLION dollar bailout is best illustrated by this analogy, at least in my mind: A fire must be extinguished whatever its cause--accident, negligence or arson.

In the case of the "fire" on Wall Street, the "arsonists" should not be rewarded in any way.

I agree with Jim Cramer, the television commentator on the ways of the financial market, that this could very well turn out with the taxpayers actually seeing a windfall.

No one wishes to risk losing their homes, and with a favorable caveat in the current agreement working to reduce the danger of foreclosure, my take is the housing market will begin to stabilize along with prices. Historical precedent has shown this is virtually the case in every downturn in the real estate market.

My optimism in no way pardons the offenses of these Robber Barons in the financial business. They surely had no interest in protecting the consumer with their rapacious greed.

If, in fact, the fiasco brought about by both Bush administration incompetency and the jackals that sought to line their pockets through chicanery and manipulation should work to the advantage of Americans shouldering all the risk, these white collar criminals should not be allowed to get off the hook or gain a red cent from their intentional misdeeds.

It is difficult to imagine any favorable outcome offsetting the trauma brought about by this negligence and greed, but, hopefully the ship of state can be righted and an Obama era can make our nation shine once more.

Harry Tenney (Electronic mail, September 29, 2008)