Neither the president nor any presidential policy is responsible for this problem. The problem is due to lack of character in all participants in transactions related to the purchase of houses. A lot of people demonstrated greed, poor judgment, and lack of integrity, and the result is a really big mess. The president is not responsible for such behavior.

Some people look at the mess, and they conclude that we need more regulation. Others look at the mess, and they conclude that the government should take over the whole industry. A variety of opinions cover the gamut of options. Opinions vary, but most of the opinions say in one way or another that the government is the cause and the government is the solution. How can that be?

The sad truth is that a lot of people on both sides of lending transactions engaged in speculation, fueled by greed, managed without integrity. Now the smoke has cleared, the mirrors have shattered, and the truth is out. People should not borrow more than they can pay for, and wise lenders should not let that happen.

But there is more. Lenders were only temporarily inconvenienced by a reduction in cash. They sold the loans to others. By the time the loans had been resold and repackaged and redefined several times over, the borrower was indebted to someone he had never met, the owner of the loan was completely ignorant of the original transaction, and everyone along the path had scarfed up some profit. Everybody, including the borrower, made a considered bet that house values would increase forever.

Enter the equity loan. Borrower with a mortgage now has equity in his house. He wants a finer car or better furniture or a vacation in France. Not satisfied with lending money on questionable properties to high-risk borrowers, the lending industry filled the airwaves with invitations to borrow up to 125% of the equity in a house to spend on anything whatsoever. This strategy, too, was a bet that house values would only increase, never decrease. Borrower and lender alike made this risky bet.

And it wasn’t enough that twenty-somethings with student loans and new jobs on glowing career paths were engaged in these bets. The Congress, in its infinite wisdom, decreed that there could be no denying loans to risky borrowers buying risky property. Congress bought a lot of votes by declaring that “red-lining” was over. Lenders were obligated to help risky borrowers buy risky properties; it was the American dream, and Congress was here to make it happen. Our caretakers socked it to the American people again. And the fake businesses created by Congress to preside over this largesse, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, socked it to us as well.

There has been a lot of criticism of greedy capitalism run amok during the past several days. Both Obama and McCain have spoken out to say what they think the government in a new administration should do about the situation. I see it differently. It seems to me that there has been entirely too much government involvement already. The government created a mechanism that guaranteed that bad loans would be covered. Then the government created a rule that guaranteed that bad loans would be made. Now, the government is trying to guarantee that the guarantors do not fail.

Get the government out of this business. Our government has no business trying to administer and guarantee the mortgage and finance industries. It has no business guaranteeing that when a citizen stupidly borrows more money than he can pay back in order to live in a house he cannot afford, he gets off, the lender gets off, and I pay. This is wrong, on a cosmic scale.

What we need is some very old-fashioned backbone, someone who will deny credit when it ought to be denied. We need lenders who will actually determine with skill that a borrower is a good risk for a loan, and we need for the government to get out of the way when the lender says NO. We need borrowers who will exercise common sense and purchase houses they can actually afford, and borrowers with the character to keep their commitments to pay, even when it is hard. We need for the government not to steal from honest people who have no debt and pay all their bills on time in order to prop up people who let greed and ego sucker them into house purchases, or loan purchases, or repackaged mortgage instruments of questionable value.

We, the people of the United Stated, do not need a caretaker government. We need a government, in a nation where government is of, by and for the people, with character to do the right thing, not the thing that buys votes.