RICO, Baby, RICO!

Post reporters and editors provided an excellent history of the financial crisis with the Oct. 15 front-page article "What Went Wrong," but they missed a critical point: Those who packaged and peddled mortgage-backed derivatives should be regarded as criminals.

The crime is fraud. Securities fraud can be prosecuted under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It requires only two acts of racketeering activity to establish a pattern as a RICO offense.

If a presidential candidate, and better yet the president himself, were to stand up and say, "RICO, baby, RICO!" it would do more than start a chant. The prospect of several dozen fraudsters in jail with lost assets would lead to an outbreak of honesty on Wall Street. Markets would soar, the credit freeze would thaw and American taxpayers would shout with glee. The world would be a better place as Wall Street returned from vandalism to capitalism, with a little help from the Justice Department.

GEORGE F. STEEG

Potomac Falls