A Valley financial planner says the seed of the current U.S. financial crisis was planted by Congress during the Carter administration and that lawmakers ignored requests for regulation ever since.

Congressional failure to regulate mortgage companies to the same extent as banks is the root cause of the current crisis, said Peter C. Stockett, a 30-year veteran of the banking and financial industries and the former vice president of Snyder County Trust Bank.

"They were told many times over the years to do it, and they wouldn't," he said Tuesday. "Both sides of the aisle are equally guilty, and now they're blaming it on everyone else.

"I don't think there are more than five or 10 members of Congress who really understand what's up."

Beginning with the Carter administration, Democrats have controlled both chambers in eight sessions of Congress, including the current 110th.

Republicans controlled the 104th through the 109th Congress, excluding the 107th, when the GOP held a majority in the House, but the Senate was tied 50-50.

Stockett also blames Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"He should never have called it a bailout," Stockett fumed. "That's not what it is. It's really an investment in our economy."

Professor may differ

Bill Gruver, a professor of economics at Bucknell University and a former partner at Goldman Sachs, said Tuesday he wasn't sure a bailout would solve the economy's problem.

"But I'm also concerned that without some response, things might go to a tipping point, to deflation and recession," Gruver said.

If the government spends $700 billion to buy securities and holds them, they will increase in value, Stockett said. When that happens, the government will make a lot of money. The market will recover, Stockett said, but it may take a few years.

If something isn't done soon, things may get a whole lot worse, Stockett said.

"If (Congress doesn't approve the bailout), people will look back in six months and wish they had," Stockett said.

The current situation began 30 years ago, Stockett said, with the congressional passage of the Community Reinvestment Act during the Carter administration.