Time for Federal Reserve to ease up on the reins

ISSUE | ECONOMY

Fed, stand down

In response to columnist Mark Zandi's Pollyanna perspective on Federal Reserve monetary policy ("Mr. Right," Sunday), I believe the Fed did an effective job in 2008, 2009, and 2010 in stabilizing our economy after the financial crisis. Since then, however, its policy has been overreaching and irresponsible, accumulating a $4.2 trillion fixed-income portfolio and maintaining near-zero percent interest rates for the last seven years.

This has served to artificially inflate asset markets, most notably the stock and bond markets.

Zandi needs to remember the tens of millions of people who depend on interest income from investments, including savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and municipal bonds, who have seen their income decimated over the last seven years. This loss of spending power also helps to stall the overall economy.

It's long past time that the Fed's monetary policy allow markets to trade openly and freely and not depend on the largesse of the Federal Reserve - or those who rely on interest income.

|Robert Sulpizio, Radnor

Employers will react

To further President Obama's drive to "put more money into the pockets of people working very hard at the lower end of the salary range," new federal rules will make more of these workers hourly employees ("The Price of OT?" Sunday). This will require overtime pay for possibly millions of employees who are now classified as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

As a compensation and business development manager for a large defense contractor, I am concerned about the impact of these rules on businesses. U.S. employers will take action to mitigate the extra costs, in many cases by shipping some of these jobs overseas. Some companies may turn to lower-paid, part-time employees to ensure that no one receives overtime.

Has the Labor Department considered these potential repercussions?

|Herb Schwartz, Berlin, schwartz148@verizon.net

ISSUE | ALERT SYSTEM

Help for disabled

Last winter, Christina - a young woman with autism who had wandered away from a caregiver in Center City - was found dead between two parked cars in West Philly. The tragedy might have been prevented if more efforts were available to signal her disappearance.

Last week, City Council adopted Dennis O'Brien's amendment to expand an alert system to address the protection of those with intellectual disabilities, autism, or dementia when they go missing. This change will hopefully protect such vulnerable people from suffering Christina's fate.

|Audrey Coccia, executive director, Vision for Equality, Philadelphia

ISSUE | PHILLY SPORTS

A Palestra legend among baseball greats

Anyone who grew up in Philadelphia in the 1960s and '70s as a Big Five basketball fan can look back at those games at the Palestra and remember them fondly. This was truly a mecca of college basketball. Nationally ranked teams from around the country feared going into the brick arena because the screaming fans provided an edge for local teams that was tough to overcome.

Chief among those fans was a little, old, Runyonesque character known as YoYo. (His real name was Harry Schifren.) He would be at every game with his brown overcoat and his cigar. (He also was a fixture at Veterans Stadium.)

YoYo was a fan favorite. The college kids loved and cheered him, and he reciprocated by putting on a little show at every game. This usually included a halftime dance at center court. The police and Palestra officials never bothered him.

Fast-forward about 50 years. As I browsed the memorabilia at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., last week with my daughter, I spotted a display that looked out of place. Five unofficial characters and mascots from different parts of the country were depicted. Among them was our own YoYo.

I expected to come across stories and relics of Babe Ruth, Mike Schmidt, and Steve Carlton. But I must admit that seeing good ol' YoYo gave me the biggest kick.

|Charles Sacchetti, Cinnaminson

ISSUE | CAMPAIGN 2015

Rooting for a big turnout to fill Pa.'s top court

It is nice that so many people are excited about ESPN's college football pregame show originating in the city (" 'GameDay' coming to Independence Hall," Tuesday). Would that there were similar interest in Tuesday's elections, which will determine the course of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for the next decade, if not longer.

|Ken Rosenberg, Rydal, krosenberg47@comcast.net

Kenney is part of the problem

Based on the five candidates for Philadelphia mayor sharing "Their Vision for the City" (Sunday), I'd like to implore my fellow citizens in advance of The Inquirer's predictable endorsement of the front-runner, Democrat Jim Kenney, to vote for anyone but him.

Kenney's vision is everything that is wrong with the city. For 24 years, hasn't he been part of the government, meaning part of the problems that he's now pledging to fix? Of the nation's 10 major cities, Philadelphia is the poorest, and it didn't get there overnight; it had a lot of help, and Kenney is responsible for his share.

|James Robison, Philadelphia, grstables2002@yahoo.com

ISSUE | GEORGE WILL

Outdated economic philosophies

George Will's rant conceptualizing two 17th-century political philosophies ("Lockeans vs. Hobbesians," Oct. 23) as applied to the future of the Supreme Court through the analogies attributed to professor Randy Barnett reflects his disdain for democratic values. His argument insults liberal positions on protection of women's rights, a fair and unbiased election process, and inequality, scorning their legitimate placement among those rights he reserves for judicial protection - "certain individual rights" favored by conservatives.

Will complains about our "majoritarian government" without noting the deficiencies the government addresses: exploitation of natural resources, denial of global warming, uncontrolled greed, continuing discrimination against minorities, and income disparity.

John Locke and Thomas Hobbes lived under a monarchy that we rejected. Perhaps conservatives should look elsewhere for ideas that relate to a world that Enlightenment thinkers never imagined.

|Maurice Kane, Cherry Hill, maury.kane@verizon.net