SIR - Before we start looking for scapegoats in our current financial crisis, perhaps we ought to trace the history of our current problems.

When President Roosevelt rescued capitalism from itself following the Wall Street Crash in 1929, he introduced an Act that separated commercial from investment banking.

His argument was that there had been too much speculation in the commercial sector, where they had acted like investment bankers with higher-risk lending. The lending institutions had to decide what sort of institution they wanted to become.

The commercial sector became tightly regulated. This remained the case until 1999, when the Act was replaced by a more lenient one. Restriction by the Federal Banking system was loosened, which led to sub-prime lending. Parallel to this, there was deregulation of the banking system in the UK, demutualisation of building societies and less tight credit systems being an inevitable knock-on effect.

So, if you want to blame anyone, blame Margaret Thatcher and John Major for deregulating the banking system. You could only blame the current administration, fairly, if it now fails to reintroduce tighter lending restrictions.

The people who pick up the tab are me and you, taxpayers. The only ones insulated are those who create a mess so big that governments have to save them from their own folly - the fat cats with their very large bonuses, who created this debacle.

Ian Parsons, Alexandra Road, Eccleshill