Entrepreneur Lee Prevost of Morrisville drops some knowledge on News & Observer editors and readers:
The Dec. 29 editorial “A bad happy” placed the blame of the financial near-disaster on the rowdy, gambling, high-paying, high-spending bankers and their anti-regulation allies the Republican soon-to-be leaders in Congress. As a businessman employing many North Carolinians, I live in a different world. It’s a world where I see first-hand the higher cost and anti-growth effects of regulation and how they stifle our economy and our ability to grow jobs. These regulations affect the everyday decisions of our citizens. I too am worried about the public getting the short end of the stick – the one wielded by the regulators.
Bankers are faced with pressure from regulators to avoid foreclosing on bad loans while simultaneously improving the quality of their balance sheets. This has the unintended consequence of banks avoiding loans to qualified business owners who wish to take advantage of low interest rates for expansion.
These policies affect job creators, too. I have experience with the growing cost burden on business and the challenges associated with financing growth in our company. In the real world, economic freedom and tempered regulation will create more jobs than the heavy burden of overregulation.
