It was standing-room-only at town hall Saturday afternoon as more than 50 residents came out to hear Congressman Christopher Shays speak about the economy, immigration, the Iraq War, and a host of other topics.
Mr. Shays, a Republican, serves Redding, as well as portions of several other Fairfield County towns, as the representative for the 4th Congressional District.
The struggling economy was the issue most on the minds of Reddingites during the 90-minute talk.
In particular, several residents brought up the federal government’s approval of, and assistance in, JP Morgan’s takeover of Bear Stearns after the financial institution declared bankruptcy last month.
Although one resident said he felt the government should not have become involved in the Bear Stearns crisis, Mr. Shays said he supported the move because if the firm had not been bailed out, “it could have created three or four more Bear Stearns.”
“And that could have had a snowball effect,” he said, leading to an even wider crisis in the nation’s financial markets.
In addition, Mr. Shays said Congress needs to do a better job at regulating and monitoring America’s “speculative markets.”
“We regulate the banking community pretty well, but financial institutions not so much,” Mr. Shays said, adding that there is a general disagreement in the congressional community about how much regulation is actually needed.
“We know that there is a huge problem, but we don’t want to go overboard and do too much,” he said.
Read more at Acorn-Online.com