Conservatism Needed

I read John F. Lawrence’s Feb. 15 column, “Merger Mania: House of Cards May Collapse,” with great interest. It’s about time someone brought such matters to the public’s attention. As Lawrence so correctly points out, a real estate agent giving the sort of advice given by so many investment bankers would be suspected of drumming up business. Unfortunately, some people have lost sight of the long-term effect of all this and have focused on short-run profits, etc. Let’s hope the “House of Cards” doesn’t fall in, and that government restrictions can be brought to bear to prevent illegal practices. It’s too bad it has to take government action to solve the problem.

Maybe some attention will also be directed at the management of companies that invested in products such as the “junk bonds” that were issued to finance some of the transactions. Whatever happened to conservatism in business?

WILLIAM H. DUDLEY

Encino