Inbox

The View from Main Street

Re TIME's cover story on Wall Street [Nov. 9]: Out in the real world, professionals who construct bridges, buildings and even houses must be licensed, to encourage adherence to stringent technical, legal and ethical standards. Ignoring the rules can result in losing one's job. Why? Because if these things are constructed poorly, people will get hurt. Since Wall Street is in the business of "engineering" markets in order to make the greatest possible amount of money, why shouldn't they also be licensed and held to similar standards?

Mark Revis, MORENO VALLEY, CALIF.

In your piece "How to Fix It," you should have added "No. 5: Require that banks and mortgage companies hold all new mortgages for at least five years before they can sell them." If there had been such a regulation in effect during the housing bubble, I guarantee there would not have been a bubble.

Abraham Yalom, SILVER SPRING, MD.

Allan Sloan concludes that because some CEOs didn't cash in their stocks, they didn't understand what they were doing. A more plausible explanation: unfettered greed blinded them. Sloan also omits the question of where the "well run" Goldman Sachs would be if it had not received a whopping $12.9 billion in bailout funds.

Jim Karavite, ROYAL OAK, MICH.

Do we really have to show up on wall Street with pitchforks and torches before its denizens get that we've had it with their lying, thieving games?

Wayne Laepple, NORTHUMBERLAND, PA.

A Is for Attention

It appears that Tim Morrison thinks first-year airline pilots are of more value and should be paid considerably more than grade-school teachers [Nov. 9]. Morrison says budget cuts have "trimmed starting pay at major airlines to $36,000--little more than a grade-school teacher's." My question is, Who is really more valuable, the person flying travelers around or the person who taught the person in the plane to read, write, calculate and, unfortunately in this case, use a laptop? As a former teacher, I found Morrison's comment condescending and unnecessary.

Kay Kautio, MINNEAPOLIS

TIME's attempt to divert attention from Northwest's Captain Timothy Cheney and First Officer Richard Cole doesn't fly. Perhaps the entry-level pay grade for pilots could stand improvement, but the "system" was not in charge of the flight that went astray while the pilots lost track of where they were. Two officers, nominally in charge, abandoned their responsibilities and endangered the lives of more than 100 passengers and crew members.

Richard Wagner, HIGHLAND, ILL.

RIP, Soupy Sales

Thanks for Richard Corliss's tribute to Soupy Sales [Nov. 9]. What it didn't mention was the utter devotion children of the 1950s felt for this dear and roguish man. We joined him every weekday for lunch. At the end of each show, he told us his menu for the next day so we could request the same. He called us his "little birdbaths" and warned us not to scratch our chicken pox. When he danced the Soupy Shuffle, he helped us forget about the looming threat of the Bomb. With his goofy antics, Soupy showed us we could still laugh and be carefree children.

Ginger Gestra, SOUTHSIDE, ALA.