As Congress scurries about identifying one villain after another, we are treated to one of the greatest freak shows of the period.

Once Congress decided to fiddle with the capitalistic market system with its altruistic goals, we should have known we were heading for a disaster. Well meaning and righteous as they were, they were, as Sen. Joe Biden likes to say about so many things, “in over their pay grade.”

The end result is now upon us: catastrophic failures in the total credit system, which is not limited to the mortgage industry, but including credit cards and automobile purchases.

If a person does not qualify for a loan — home, auto or credit line — it is folly to expect they will suddenly “ find a way”

They didn’t qualify. Period.

Enter Congress — both parties —with the grandiose idea that it could leverage, tyrannize or otherwise persuade lenders to pass out money to unqualified people so they could acquire things they couldn’t afford.

How did Congress do this? Members back these frivolous loans with the treasury of the United States.

Where is the surprise? There is always a day of reckoning? It is here now.

It is not the greedy Wall Street brokerage firms or the greedy banking institutions. It was Congress diddling in the free market.

Folks like Rep. Barney Franks and Sen. Chris Dodd are prime examples of at least two who personally profited using their positions in Congress.

Tighten your belts. We are in for a very long and rough ride as we greet this new president.

John Murphy

Franklin