Bernie Sanders proposes legislation to break up big banks and other too big to fail companies.

Right Condition ^ | 11/6/2009 | me

[arkadyka]

It is not often the case in this crazy time in America that someone like myself would be aligned with a self proclaimed socialist, Bernie Sanders from Vermont. While I find Sanders view on almost everything to be abhorrent, wrong and flat out anti-American, the man has some serious cojones.

Specifically the introduction of the bill that he wishes to be called Too big to fail, Too big to exist Act. Actually on the subject of aligning with socialists, Sanders also submitted a version of Ron Paul's House bill to audit the Fed and this would then mark the second time I support a socialist. Oi Vey.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Even a stopped clock is right 2 times a day. Sometimes even leftists come up with good ideas.

[donmeaker]

So, when are they going to break up California?

[arkadyka]

Yeah, although I wonder how he can justify something like central planning of our health care system yet dislike The Fed which is the same kind of central planning. Quite odd.

[kingu]

Here’s how you do it: You end regulation, you end account insurance, you make it so that people are flying blind. What, you say, won’t this mean people get ripped off? People get ripped off everyday, and they call the cops, and prosecutors go after the frauds. Right now, that’s not happening with these ripoff shops. Because they’re ‘regulated’ and thus outside the reach of most prosecutors.

And folks won’t jump in blindly into investments, like they do now, as they assume someone else is watching out for everything. Knowing that no one is, they’ll be more cautious and attentive to their investments, and won’t let companies get away with the junk they do today.

But this isn’t a socialist method of doing it, instead we want government to get even bigger and order companies to dissolve because the system that was put in place, like every government program, has been an abysmal failure.

Sorry, that broken clock is still broken, as the hands are busy writing up more things to tell us what to do.

[arkadyka]

Your theory would only work if the fraud would get prosecuted, but as you can plainly see this is not happening.

Dont you think that people behind the collapses of 2008 should be investigated already if not in jail by now. Enron fell apart and heads rolled. Entire financial system falls apart and taxpayers are on the hook. No, this system does not work when those in charge of our finances control EVERYTHING.

[kingu]

Right now, the only people to investigate the collapse of 2008 are a) congress, which created the mess by ordering banks to make bad investments, b) securities boards populated by former investment bankers who are either so bad that they couldn’t make more money outside of government, or are using it for inside investment information, or c) governing boards that are just collecting checks from each company they are on.

Strip away the ‘protections’ these companies have and treat them just like every other company, where state and county prosecutors can go after the crooks who cheat investors.

I mean, look, we’ve tried the regulatory method, and it’s turned out to be an abysmal failure. We’ve broken up large companies in the past, and people are still getting ripped off, why not actually try something different rather than expecting different results from the same action again?

[DannyTN]

1. We used to enforce existing antitrust laws that limit the market share in a product or service that a company could have before coming under anti-trust scrutiny and being broken up.
2. Some companies like auto-companies may not lend themselves well to being broken up. Although certainly you could separate the finance arms and parts suppliers.
3. One of the reasons, that I believe anti-trust laws are not enforced is Global competition. If you break U.S. companies up into smaller companies they will be at a competitive disadvantage to larger global companies.
4. Therefore, I believe you have to limit Global companies from playing in our backyard, unless and until they play by similar rules, including anti-trust limitations.

[jonrick46]

These large banks are not big without good reason. Their monetary diversification enables their survival in hard economic times. With access to huge monetary assets, they function as an economic power houses that keeps the economy afloat. Their monetary assets also have the advantage of resisting the efforts of Big Government to control them. Marxists like Sanders would love to topple these engines of wealth.

Capitalism has always been the arch enemy of these Marxists. And these big banks are the prize trophy for them. Once they are gone, Capitalism can then be transformed into the slave of Big Government they want. This shortsighted quest for power is the real cause of the economic disaster we are now in. This economic disaster has been their goal from the beginning. Its objective has always been to take down Capitalism so that Communism has no one strong enough to oppose its control.

[secretagent]

Three cheers for real capitalism, as opposed to its opposite: welfare capitalism.

Real capitalism would have let credit freeze and giants go bankrupt.