Obama,Dems are Crony Crapitalists

Western Hero ^ | 25 Apr 2010 | Silverfiddle

[foutsc]

Congress is determined to pile regulation upon mistake, adding to the rickety regulatory pyramid of futility and failure.  They are crafting a  Back Door Bailout.  

The House bill contains an authorization for the Federal Reserve for $4 trillion in “secured loans” to bailout individuals, partnerships or corporations in financial distress. Page 506 of the House passed bill, titled the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act states in part:

"The amounts made available under this subsection shall not exceed $4,000,000,000,000."

The Senate bill has the same loan authority with no cap on the amount of funds available to failing businesses.

It is useful to recall what caused this recession

The mistake was constant interventions in the free market by the Fed and the U.S. Treasury that addressed symptoms and postponed problems instead of solving them. (WSJ - Faber)

Saying greed caused our economic collapse is like saying drinking caused the drunken brawl at the ball game last weekend

It's self-evident.  It's human nature.  Dangle a steak in front of a gluttonous man, and he will snatch it, even if his gut is full, and especially where there are no negative consequences to the greedy grab.  Offer free money to people, as the Bush treasury did, and they will grab it with both hands.

Easy money caused the collapse

Money flowed too freely due to low interest rates and Wall Street lapped it up and blew it on a wild, speculative orgy.  And why not?  They knew their benefactors in Washington would pick the taxpayers' pockets to cover their gambling debts.  And lo and behold it came to pass.  Dirty Hank and his pirates of the Potomac blew a hole in the side of the treasury and got away with trillions, all in broad daylight.

Back before the crash, the financial industry, egalitarians that they are, loudly exhorted ordinary people to join in the bacchanalia.  All that cheap money's gotta go somewhere!  So they loaned money to people who had no business taking on that much debt.  Ordinary citizens (and illegal aliens) could now be as irresponsible as the government!  Power to the people!

It may warm the hearts of some to see a poor person be given a Mercedes Benz, but it's bound to end badly.  Insurance and maintenance costs will eat up a lower income person's budget (I drive old fords, so don't start with me!)  Instead of putting their money in the bank or building wealth with it, they are blowing it all on that damned car.
 

That is what happened to ordinary citizens, only with houses.  The American Dream is still alive, but it is not well.  It has been counterfeited by sleazy corporatists who are in bed with your congressman.

More regulation?  The regulators failed to regulate!

Financial services regulators failed to enforce laws and regulations against fraud. Bernie Madoff is the paradigmatic case and the Securities and Exchange Commission the paradigmatic failed regulator.

Fraud is famously difficult to uncover, but as we now know, not Madoff's. The SEC chose to ignore the evidence brought to its attention. Banking regulators allowed a kind of mortgage dubbed "liar loans" to flourish. And so on.  (WSJ - O'Driscoll)

The Congressional cornucopia of supply and demand carve-outs and exceptions for favored industries and businesses greatly contributed to the mess.  

What's The Solution? 

A coworker who is a happy but deeply skeptical liberal, brought up Thomas Carlyle.  I had never read him, but indulging in a few snippets, I quickly saw where my buddy's pessimism came from.

Thomas Carlyle, the 19th century Victorian essayist, unflatteringly described classical liberalism as "anarchy plus a constable." As a romanticist, Carlyle hated the system—but described it accurately. (WSJ - O'Driscoll)

This is the same pessimism that causes a liberal to quote conservative Edmund Burke, and observe with a sigh that we probably need to be ruled by a king.  I, despite being a fan of Ludwig von Mises, could only sadly nod in agreement.  

It's the human nature, stupid!

You can put rules in place, but human nature always finds a way around them.  "Locks are for honest people," my drill instructor told me years ago.  A wall of bureaucratic busybodies armedwith reams of red tape is no match for greed.  Natural consequences is the only brake that can slow that speeding train. 

Setting up a bailout fund, as Democrats propose, sends a strong message that we will again bail out these shamelsess bastards. 

No!  Instead, update the bankruptcy laws to make it easier for rival companies to speedily carve up the corpse when a financial entity founders itself on greed. 

Are they too big to fail?  Break them up.  Or as a free-marketeer would advocate, simply remove all governmental protections for the behemoths, and they will break themselves up so they can fit under the security umbrella again.  For good measure, congress should throw in monetary rewards for ratting out slimy competitors.

Corporate entities and average citizens should be made to suffer the full consequences of their greedy overreach and willful stupidity.  This legal jujitsu uses their powerful greed against them.  They don't want to lose it all, so they will throttle back the urge to grab it all.

Will any of these suggestions be implemented in this current legislation?  Wall Street political contributions break 62% for Democrats, 38% for Republicans.  You tell me...

[Pollster1]

A RINO would argue them down to $2T. I’m less generous with other people’s money. I’d say that $1 is too much.

[redhead]

Reading Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” has scared the daylights out of me. LOL! His exposure of big business in bed with the government is a heartbreaker. The only real capitalism is in the soon to be extinct small businesses.

[foutsc]

The RINOs are doing it too, and that is the problem. Liberal Fascism is an AWESOME book!