So much for anti-trust legislation

By The Daily Progress

Published: September 16, 2008

Granted, I am not an economist. However, I recall many years ago in business school studying competition, the marketplace and anti-trust legislation. Monopolies, in a very general and broad sense, are interpreted as having an undue powerful and unreasonable ability to influence market price.

I do not suggest that Fannie and Freddie illegally influenced mortgage rates. But the fact that two companies were allowed to hold $5 trillion worth of mortgages, half of all mortgages in the United States, and the fact that their failures are so extremely dangerous to the welfare of our economy, suggests to me that our government needs to broaden its understanding of, interpretation of and reasons for using anti-trust legislation.

Kenneth N. Moore
Albemarle County