The Dec. 30 editorial, "American capitalism, battered," is a well-written piece bringing out very clearly and persuasively the events/reasons that led to the present turmoil in the world economy. But it is not very heartening to note that the U.S. governmental actions are still not well thought out and designed to fill the lacunae in the system, and that the banks and other institutions are not using the help provided by the government in the proper way to bring solace to ordinary people who have suffered due to no fault of theirs.
The lack of transparency and the profusion of fine print in financial transactions must be dealt with in such a way that investors can readily understand the situation they are getting into. That way, if some investors later suffer as a result of their greediness, one can ignore them with the thought that they deserve what they got!