Capitalism and risk

Professor Jonathan Levy may be correct that only the federal government can act on the scale needed, given the unfortunate scope of our recent financial crises (A Moment With, Oct. 26), but he seems to ignore some salient points.

Not only has our government done a very poor job of managing risk, it actually has introduced major risks through the creation of unfunded entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare) that are ballooning our national debt. Secondly, the housing mess and the related banking crisis were largely a government-inspired creation (Community Reinvestment Act, affordable housing goals and directives, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the failure of bank regulation, allowing the leverage ratios of some large banks to triple).

Capitalism is just fine. The government simply needs to incentivize work and thrift (the moral pillars of capitalism), and our economy will blossom again.