McCain Vows to Clean Up Wall Street; "I've taken on tougher guys than this before" - Video 9/17/08

Blogs for John McCain ^ | September 17, 2008 | brianinmo

[all the best]

Greed had nothing to do with it. What is driving American politics and government at all levels is covetous. Throw in envy and jealousy. The credit debacle is sheer covetousness. People wanting what they don’t have the money for. House, bigger house, better car. Another pair of cute shoes, dinner out every Saturday, vacations and travel. On and on. It’s all covetousness. Government and banks don’t force people to go into debt.
Until the issue of covetousness is dealt with we are headed for disaster. Scream “greed” all you want and it will just give potent ammo to Obama, Pelosi and their gang.

[dirtboy]

The failure in all this was the LACK OF REGULATORY OVERSIGHT! Not too much! The fundamental truth that Teddy Roosevelent pointed out long ago.. “Unfettered capitalism breeds corruption.”

A lot of folks act like we never had financial panics in the 1800s when there was little or no regulation of financial markets. We are re-learning the hard way now that there were reasons for basic regulations to be imposed in the first place. The tricky part, like all things related to government, is finding the right balance, a task made much more difficult when people look at the issue ideologically instead of pragmatically, and when just about every politician approaching the issue has his or her own large set of hidden agendas...

[dirtboy]

Criminals breed/practice/flaunt corruption. Capitalism has nothing to do with it.

Uh, no. Driving a care safely and driving it recklessly are still driving. That's why we have cops, to ferret out the dangerous driving.

[PGalt]

Misuse of analogy. Identify the individual reckless driver (sometimes with criminal intent).

[Captain Kirk]

The Subprime meltdown, in spite of all the talk radio talking spin, is a result of pure unadulterated greed, PERIOD.

I'm not surprised that someone who takes the name Hamilton/Jay absolves the politicians, the federal government, and the inflationist federal reserve of all blame.

[VOA]

Individual criminality is not capitalism. Think Enron. Criminals
breed/practice/flaunt corruption. Capitalism has nothing to
do with it. Identify the criminal. Identify the individual.

Strictly speaking, capitalism is not to blame.
It is just that many very bright and driven people get to the
higher levels of bidness and finance.
And given the concept of freedom/liberty in our concept of capitalism,
a very few percent will be (or go) rotten and do incredible damage.

I wish it could be that we could have un-regulated capitalism
with the lowest possible "transaction costs".
But as in many enterprises...a few bad apples spoil the fun
for all the good folks.

Until we've got fantastic psychological tools to weed out the
bad apples early on...some policing (and threat of punishment)
will be needed.

But unfortunately, those fantastic psychological tools may actually
be put to the wrong ends. I remember reading a few years back
that some "business or occupational" psychologist said he'd
developed a battery of tests to identify the bad guys/gals in
business.
He said he was reluctant to openly publish them.
Because the boards of some companies might use them to identify and
hire the avaricious, ruthless and sociopathic types to run their
companies to hyper-drive profitability, no matter the human damage.

[section9]

One of the problems that exist on Wall Street in particular, and in Corporate America in General, is that nobody at the top appears to get punished, and made an example of in public, for bad performance for the shareholders.

Prime example? Bob Nardelli at Home Depot. Not only did he lose market share to Lowe's and other big box retailers, he lost customers, destroyed company morale, and helped to crater stock price.

His reward? A 200 million dollar buyout of his contract from the board.

The dry rot is not simply confined to the financial sector.

Best,

Chris

[dirtboy]

Misuse of analogy

Hardly. Capitalism and Driving are basically predicated on freedome constrained by personal responsibility, but human nature means some will abuse the freedom in a manner that puts others at risk. Driving is kept within boundaries of safety to the larger public by law enforcement. Capitalism is similar.

[NCPAC]

Take on Wall Street?!

What’s McCain trying to do? Step into the stained shoes of Eliot SpRitzer?

[PGalt]

Show me where “capitalism” has harmed anyone and I will show you a criminal not a capitalist. Meanwhile, there are billions of individual exchanges taking place on the planet today that are examples of the virtues of capitalism.

[HamiltonJay]

Hahaha, you haven’t read my posts on FR very long if you believe that.

The Federal Reserve System itself is a complete scam that needs to be abolished... all this nonsense at its core can be traced back to the Fed’s very existence if you want to take it back that far.

[dirtboy]

Show me where “capitalism” has harmed anyone and I will show you a criminal not a capitalist.

I guess you are being deliberately obtuse here. I am simply noting that both driving and capitalism involve freedom and also require enforcement.

[PGalt]

I am simply noting that both driving and capitalism involve freedom and also require enforcement.

I agree. With freedom comes choices. Those choices drive our actions. Taking full responsibility for our choices and actions is important.

Our differences are microscopically insignificant compared to the differences we have with individuals who want to lie to us, cheat us, steal from us, enslave us, kill us.

[PGalt]

Very interesting. Thanks.

[Petronski]

The guys he needs to “take on” are all on Capitol Hill.

[TADSLOS]

"I've taken on tougher guys than this before"

Yeah, like Charles Keating. Oops, that's a not so good example...

[TADSLOS]

The guys he needs to “take on” are all on Capitol Hill.

What, and destroy his penchant for one way bi-partisanship and lobbyist sharing?

[VOA]

One of the problems that exist on Wall Street in particular, and in
Corporate America in General, is that nobody at the top appears to
get punished, and made an example of in public, for bad performance
for the shareholders.

It was BURIED in a small article in The Wall Street Journal this week,
but I was heartened to read that the top-t-rds that ran FannieMae/FreddieMac
into the ground were NOT getting their multi-million-dollar
bonuses.
They get to keep their 401k's and other remuneration.
(It would be nice to know if their 401k's actually had any
FreddieMac/FannieMae stock in them...bet they didn't because they
knew they were destroying the house).

Here's hoping they'll really be missing those denied bonuses...
when they are paying some big legal defense bills!!!

Heck, Ken Lay died before jail...we need to send some of the
current weasels to share his empty cell!!!

[Mogollon]

Juan needs to clean up wall street by not allowing the government to control any corporation, bank, mortgage or insurance company.