Get back to prudent spending and lending

I agree that the status of the dollar as the world's currency is in danger ["The high price of a dollar laid low," Opinion, May 22]. A $14-trillion deficit has led to the dollar's devaluation, making food, fuel and just about everything more expensive for us.

Columnist Peter Goldmark explains away the financial collapse of 2008 as driven by "Bush-era abdication from policing the markets" and "irresponsible American financial institutions peddling phony mortgages," but he does not cite the role the liberal-minded push on financial institutions to make bad loans, or chance being accused of injustice toward minorities.

As to his point about government investing in our framework -- wasn't that what the federal stimulus was for? Instead, much of that went to subsidize states' union pension obligations.

To strengthen our dollar, we need to get back to basic economic policy: Don't spend what you don't have, don't make loans on feel-good philosophy, and stop making pension promises that cannot be fulfilled.

Diana Erbio, Saint James