Quotes of the Day

Recession Redux
"The Price of Greed" is great reporting [Sept. 29]. Andy Serwer and Allan Sloan compressed a staggering amount of information into five pages and still made this trajectory of avarice remarkably clear. Now that I think I understand it, I wish I didn't feel so angry.
Edward Claymore,
Laguna Woods, California

Where has the government been? Remember Ronald Reagan's mantra: Regulation is bad. The Reagan, Bush I and Bush II administrations believed in three main things: deregulation, tax cuts that provide little relief for most Americans and government subsidies for huge corporations. John McCain now has a "comprehensive" plan for the economy that begins with firing the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yet in September his initial response to this crisis was, once again, to make the Bush tax cuts permanent and to increase Federal Government support for corporate America. Maybe McCain hasn't noticed, but this isn't working.
Ruth Parente,
Middletown, Connecticut

The government is much more responsible for this mess than Wall Street is, by failing to reform government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005 and by allowing subprime mortgage loans to be made to unqualified buyers.
Forrest S. Walters,
Erie, Pennsylvania

It is too simplistic to blame greed for the financial mess. The fault is a broader human trait: the reluctance or inability to consider the downside of a situation that has so many attractive features. The financial products at issue were profitable, and people were getting houses. Any problems that arose would be taken care of tomorrow. Wonderful invention, tomorrow!
Kenneth Viste,
Boise, Idaho

I am from China, where it is extremely difficult for leaders to apologize publicly for the mistakes they make. I always thought Americans were much better in this respect. However, I wonder why there has been no one from Wall Street or the White House who would apologize to the American people or even to the global community for the horrible financial mess we are now facing — someone who would have the guts to stand up and say, "I am sorry for my mishandling, my misjudgment, my negligence."
Wang Zhixue,
Monterey Park, California

The U.S. government can and should encourage buyers to head back into the real-estate market by announcing that people who buy a home during the next year will be exempt from federal income tax if and when they later resell that home for a profit. Driven by the profit motive — and tax-free profit at that — real estate investors and others would soon begin snapping up short sales, foreclosures and any other bargains they could find. Unsold housing inventories and mortgage foreclosures would decline, and the housing market would be on its way to recovery. Good old-fashioned capitalism would again save the day.
Charles Lingenfelter,
Carlsbad, California

The Art of the Campaign
I couldn't help noticing the democratic slant to Joe Klein's article on John McCain's campaign of lies [Sept. 29]. In the same issue, a two-page chart showed a good many half truths and lies credited to the Democrats too. Seems to me that Barack Obama and Joe Biden did as well or better when it came to distorting the facts.
Dick Riddle,
Tonasket, Washington

Joe Klein claims there is little "moral equivalency" between McCain's brand of lying and Obama's, with the former's ranging anywhere from the "annoying to the sleazy." And Klein could think of only one instance when Obama crossed the line (though never calling it a lie), whereas McCain has turned it into an art form. Absent from the list of Obama's "lies" is his declaration that McCain actually is O.K. with the war in Iraq continuing for 100 years if need be. That pronouncement far exceeds any exaggerations from the McCain camp. The media's love affair with Obama is well documented. Nevertheless, TIME magazine should at least attempt objectivity.
Hirbod Rashidi,
Los Angeles

Bottled Value
I read with some amusement your article "Awash in Sales," about stainless-steel water bottles [Sept. 29]. In 1986, when I was teaching in China, I bought two one-liter steel canteens from the People's Liberation Army surplus store. They cost me the equivalent of $2 each. I still use them: one stays in the fridge while I take the other to work. I just rinse them daily and refill them with tap water. As with many other things, it seems the Chinese got there first.
Larry Tedesco,
Brisbane, Queensland

A Fight to End Maternal Deaths
Thanks to Vivienne Walt for the thought-provoking article on maternal mortality in Freetown and the whole developing world [Sept. 29]. This issue is a priority for our people, and we will be committed to staying the course until we see results. But governments definitely have a central role. Keep up the good work!
Rashid Abdulai,
Freetown, Sierra Leone

The scope of the maternal mortality crisis is magnified by the fact that it's a crisis that can be solved. One of the largest contributors to maternal deaths in the developing world is unintended pregnancy. More than 200 million women would like to limit childbearing but have no access to safe, effective birth control. This results in 70 million to 80 million unintended pregnancies every year. Public-health experts estimate that almost half of all maternal deaths could be averted by universal access to contraceptives. The U.S., which should lead the way, has instead placed more roadblocks in the way of poor women who want to use birth control. Since 1995, U.S. funding for overseas family-planning clinics has declined nearly 40%. In the same period, the number of women in their childbearing years has grown by 275 million. It's time for a renewed commitment to family-planning.
Brian Dixon, Vice President, Population Connection,
Washington

It's Not Easy Being Green
I read your recent article about General Motors' Chevrolet Volt with disbelief [Sept. 29]. There was no acknowledgment that four companies — Aptera, Miles Electric Vehicles, Tesla and Think — plan on bringing fully electric vehicles to the U.S. marketplace before GM does. In the future, perhaps you could research a little deeper!
Alexander Fox,
Charleston, South Carolina

your article incorrectly stated that regeneration recovers heat from braking. Regenerative braking converts the kinetic energy of the moving car directly into electricity using a generator. The energy is never heat in the process. The brakes work the same way a power turbine does when it converts the kinetic energy of moving water into electricity at Hoover Dam. Normal car brakes do convert kinetic energy into heat. And hybrid cars do have a set of normal brakes for use when necessary. But the heat created that way is dispersed into the atmosphere, not converted into electricity.
Dexter Ford,
manhattan beach, california

It was telling that the graphic accompanying your article showed an electrical cord that was not plugged in to a socket. In the U.S., where I come from, that cord will likely draw its power from a plant burning coal. Who is kidding whom? There's still no free energy lunch.
Christopher Hungerland,
suffolk park, new south wales

The Volt may make a small dent in America's dependence on imported oil, but that's all. Since 70% of U.S. electricity is made by burning natural gas or coal in power stations, the car basically swaps one fossil fuel for another. And because it's carrying a 400-lb. (180-kg) dead-weight battery, it may even wind up using more fossil fuel and costing more to run than a normal car — with no compensating reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
Anton Ziolkowski,
Edinburgh