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In Dodd we trust?

Robert Romano, Americans for Limited Government:

[…] Senate Republicans would also do well to remember, and never forget, that the tea parties were born because of the bailouts and government takeovers in the first place. That the GOP’s political misfortunes of 2008 can largely be attributed to their embracing the Wall Street bailout-takeover regime that Senate Democrats now seek to institutionalize permanently.

Public outrage over the bailouts and takeovers, and then the phony “stimulus,” and then the carbon cap-and-tax, and then ObamaCare, and on and on, have all spilled over to create the nation’s newest and most potent political force in the country. Thus far, this uprising of the American people has not abated, and the anger will only grow the more power government seizes.

Especially with the Dodd bill, which both Goldman Sachs and Citigroup wholeheartedly embrace. The Dodd bill creates moral hazard of the first order by giving the implied taxpayer backing to some 60 financial and insurance companies with over $50 billion in consolidated assets. The FDIC will levy assessments on these companies that the American people will pay for with higher costs of financial products and other fees to finance the unlimited bailout-takeover fund, or what the Senate is calling an “orderly liquidation fund.”

As ALG News has previously reported, the bill would also give unlimited authority to the government to seize any company in the country (financial or not) deemed “too risky”, and either keep their assets (i.e. nationalize) or redistribute to favored political constituencies, like labor unions.

Making matters worse, shareholders whose assets are liquidated, even if the company was not even insolvent, would have no recourse to federal courts, as the bill makes it illegal to sue over the assets of any government takeover.

As if that was not bad enough, the legislation addresses none of the root causes of the crisis: Fannie, Freddie, the Federal Reserve, the FHA, and HUD that weakened credit standards and pumped the system with easy money to inflate the housing, securities, and derivatives bubbles to catastrophic proportions in the first place. Now that those bubbles have popped, the bailouts have not ended, and the unbridled deficit-spending is ongoing in earnest, the nation’s credit rating and ability to repay its debts is threatened.

And Senate Democrats now want to institutionalize the system that nearly brought the global economy to its knees and has spawned the sovereign debt crisis with limitless deficit-spending.

In short, it’s a really, really bad bill. And should Republicans now fail to stop it, they could be sealing their permanent political destruction — because they will have directly aided and abetted the bankruptcy and sovereign default of the United States of its debt obligations.

Taxpayers cannot afford another 60 or so Fannie Mae’s.

Republicans must realize that none of their amendments or ideas will be of any consequence to the final outcome of this “debate.” After all, Republican ideas in TARP were never enforced. Congressional intent for the TARP bill was never followed as it was transformed into a recapitalization fund. Congressional rejection of the GM and Chrysler bailouts was overridden by executive caprice.

Have Republicans learned their lesson yet?

I don’t have a magic 8 ball handy, but if I did — and were I to ask it this question while shaking the thing vigorously — I suspect the little floating pyramid inside would come back with something like, “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”

And I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, should I choose to object.

The ball, it just knows

83 Replies to “In Dodd we trust?”

  1. B Moe says:

    Yeah, but once C&T passes and the Chicago Exchange goes on line Fannie is gonna be fucking rolling in dough. Google it.

  2. Mike LaRoche says:

    Greece leads the Western world once again…

  3. Spiny Norman says:

    In Dodd we trust? Countrywide Chris Dodd? Why of course! Look what he did for our real estate investments!

  4. bh says:

    I’m glad you posted about this. It is incredibly bad legislation.

  5. Spiny Norman says:

    In short, it’s a really, really bad bill. And should Republicans now fail to stop it, they could be sealing their permanent political destruction — because they will have directly aided and abetted the bankruptcy and sovereign default of the United States of its debt obligations.

    Taxpayers cannot afford another 60 or so Fannie Mae’s.

    Sealing their what? In Nishi’s world, it’s flipped 180 degrees: if the GOP does NOT fall in line with this, they are doomed to extinction…

    Really, I don’t think she’s stupid, I think she’s an arsonist.

  6. bh says:

    Really, I don’t think she’s stupid, I think she’s an arsonist.

    Absolutely. Dead on.

  7. Makewi says:

    I just want to point out that failure to get behind this legislation is proof that you are anti-American.

  8. bdam says:

    “The FDIC will levy assessments on these companies that the American people will pay for with higher costs of financial products and other fees to finance the unlimited bailout-takeover fund, or what the Senate is calling an “orderly liquidation fund.””

    Oh noes. The FDIC.

  9. JHo says:

    I think she’s an arsonist.

    Barely smart enough to regard the definition; never wise enough to grasp the meaning.

  10. happyfeet says:

    it’s an icosahedron Mr. Jeff

  11. sdferr says:

    It’s more about the exultant dancing about the bonfire than building the bonfire I think: the building can safely be left to the industry of others.

  12. dicentra says:

    Some people just like to watch the world burn.

  13. JHo says:

    The global monetary system is a kind of Cloward-Piven writ large. Whether it’s intentional or consequential doesn’t really matter in the final analysis.

    Bernanke has (so he thinks) cleverly tied up much of the liquidity with which he has infused the banks as secure reserves which are paying riskless returns thanks to his innovation in sustaining a floor under the ZIRP by paying interest directly. But if you look at what he is doing, and all Bernanke has done, even in his buying a trillion dollars of bad mortgage debt, he is merely rescuing well-heeled creditors and the banks and hedge funds who engaged in reckless speculation during a housing mania that the Greenspan Federal Reserve had fostered, using the very funds from the people who were most greatly harmed. It is an almost perfect betrayal.

    It’s never been entirely about the banksters. It’s been about the monetary system ever since the progressive Federal Reserve Act. The last act concerns how the system itself is too big to fail. We already know how that ends.

  14. newrouter says:

    burn baby burn

  15. dicentra says:

    Foxes. Chicken coop. No assembly required.

  16. mojo says:

    How the hell did Dodd get anywhere near this? The “Senator from First National” has nothing useful to say.

  17. dicentra says:

    The global monetary system is a kind of Cloward-Piven writ large. Whether it’s intentional or consequential doesn’t really matter in the final analysis.

    It does matter in the sense that if it’s consequential, there’s hope that you can point out the problems to the congresscritters and they’ll stop going down this path. Assuming they can comprehend what you’re saying, and they understand how their actions will result in those consequences.

    If it’s intentional, we can properly characterize those whom we’re dealing with and stop giving them the benefit of the doubt.

    EVAR. AGAIN.

    A LOT can happen between now and 2012, or even now and November. People mocked Glenn Beck for saying two years ago that within 12 months we’d not recognize our little country. Even though he was right, they continue to mock him—not because they think he’s a fool but because they know he’s not.

  18. JHo says:

    How Dodd got near it regards those foxes and chickens. It’s global, meaning it’s systemic. Worse, it doesn’t pay to remain solvent:

    The underlying problem is the rule for printing money: in the eurozone, any government can finance itself by issuing bonds directly (or indirectly) to commercial banks, and then having those banks “repo” them (i.e., borrow using these bonds as collateral) at the ECB in return for fresh euros. The commercial banks make a profit because the ECB charges them very little for those loans, while the governments get the money – and can thus finance larger budget deficits. The problem is that eventually that government has to pay back its debt or, more modestly, at least stabilize its public debt levels.

    This same structure directly distorts the incentives of commercial banks: they have a backstop at the ECB, which is the “lender of last resort”; and the ECB and European Union (EU) put a great deal of pressure on each nation to bail out commercial banks in trouble. When a country joins the eurozone, its banks win access to a large amount of cheap financing, along with the expectation they will be bailed out when they make mistakes. This, in turn, enables the banks to greatly expand their balance sheets, ploughing into domestic real estate, overseas expansion, or crazy junk products issued by Goldman Sachs. Just think of Ireland and Spain, where the banks took on massive loans that are now sinking the country.

    Given the eurozone provides easy access to cheap money, it is no wonder that many more nations want to join. No wonder also that it blew up. Nations with profligate governments or weak financial systems had a bonanza. They essentially borrowed funds from the less profligate elsewhere in the eurozone, backed by the ECB. The Germans were relatively austere; the periphery enjoyed the boom. But now we have moved past the boom, and someone in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and perhaps Italy has to repay something – or at least stop borrowing without constraint. So Mr. Trichet and Mr. Strauss-Kahn go, cap in hand, to ask Germany for further assistance. […]

    By far the most natural G20 partner to manage this process is – despite all its baggage – the IMF, but there’s a serious problem. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the current head of the IMF today, very much wants to become the next President of France. There is no way for the G20 to provide funding that he would guide – he has an obvious and unavoidable conflict of interest, and no incentive to make the tough decisions today that are required to sort out the euro zone.

    An obvious and unavoidable conflict of interest”. Where have we seen that before, classical liberals?

  19. Torvald says:

    I’m afraid that if the Fed’s try to “reform” Fannie and Freddie, they’ll only screw them up more. Check this out:

    http://www.housingwatch.com/2010/02/17/fannie-and-freddie-jekyll-and-hyde/?ncid=AOLCOMMre00sharartl0003

  20. JHo says:

    The dollar is worth about five cents by now, dicentra. Everything else is more or less going exponential. Where to begin?

  21. cranky-d says:

    They cut apart a magic 8-ball on teevee last night. The show is basically a guy cutting stuff up to see what’s inside. It’s weird since if he wanted to know that he could just get the blueprints or something.

  22. bdam says:

    “People mocked Glenn Beck for saying two years ago that within 12 months we’d not recognize our little country.”

    It wasn’t just that.

  23. bdam says:

    “The dollar is worth about five cents by now”

    Where can I engage in this money making scheme?

  24. JD says:

    Meya – what is your position on the alleged financial “reform”? Absent a clear statement as to where you stand, you can go fuck yourself, swordfish-style.

  25. The Bewildered Lost Dog says:

    Chris Dodd is my “at hope”(the new government word for “retarded”) senator.

    He is an absolute piece of shit, who is most famous for his “waitress sandwich” with the dearly departed Saint Ted Kennedy.

    I hate Dodd’s guts, because he has obviously never read the constitution, and wouldn’t give a shit if he had.

    AN ABSOLUTE PIECE OF SHIT, WHO PRECIPITATED THE MORTGAGE MELTDOWN, ALONG WITH “TAKE IT IN THE BUTT” BARNEY FRANK (I denounce myself!)

    Excuse my French, but our government is completely out of control.

    I hope the Tea Parties are for real.

    I for one have registered to vote in a very blue state for the first time. I have voted for president many times, but have always been overwhelmed by idiots who think that the government is the ultimate caretaker.

    CT is one of the richest states in the nation, so I am not surprised that the “Give Me” crowd rules.

    Jim Himes is toast. Try to stuff enough shit down my throat, and I will puke all over you.

    We are being fucked by the very people who have sworn to uphold the Constitution.

    Maybe they should read it…

    Nah. Too much trouble for people that don’t give a shit about anything but their power…

    Enough.

    It appears that I have a bad attitude, n’est pas?

  26. pendejo grande says:

    Democrats are the party of the little people. Republicans are the party of the bankers. I read it in a history book somewhere. It must be true.

  27. cynn says:

    Republicans may not have learned their lesson, but they have internalized their position very well. It’s the British Bulldog theory of politics: you create a physical barrier to any debate, and therefore shut everything down. Well played.

    The big banks pay lip service to this financial legislation because it is in their interest to ingratiate themselves into the process. I hope the smarter Dems don’t fall for it. Requiring large institutions to maintain adequate capital against losses and allowing banks to be liquidated does not imply any automatic bailout or government backstop. You are not only drinking the Drool-Aid, you are inhaling the fumes. What’s your preferred option? Let the markets work? Oh, yeah, that went well.

  28. sdferr says:

    “It’s the British Bulldog theory of politics: you create a physical barrier to any debate, and therefore shut everything down.”

    Isn’t that an example of itself at work Cynn? That is, you and god alone know what you’re talking about there. Well played, indeed.

  29. newrouter says:

    crime inc.

    http://www.watchglennbeck.com/

    4/29/10

    discuss

  30. newrouter says:

    It’s the British Bulldog theory of politics: you create a physical barrier to any debate, and therefore shut everything down. Well played.

    fuck you mr. projection

  31. geoffb says:

    My bold.

    the bill would also give unlimited authority to the government to seize any company in the country (financial or not) deemed “too risky”, and either keep their assets (i.e. nationalize) or redistribute to favored political constituencies, like labor unions.

    Making matters worse, shareholders whose assets are liquidated, even if the company was not even insolvent, would have no recourse to federal courts, as the bill makes it illegal to sue over the assets of any government takeover.

    The financial stuff is to haggle over. Boob bait for the economic Bubbas. This is the heart of the matter. Seize any company, any, A.N.Y., keep it as a government asset or give/sell it to anyone. Shareholders aka owners, fuck you, pigs. We need to spread the your wealth around.

  32. SDN says:

    cynn, it was Copperhead manipulation of the markets (CRA, anyone) and refusal to entertain proposals that might have fixed it (Bush wanting Freddie and Fannie reform, 2003 and 2005) that are the proximate causes.

  33. JD says:

    This is pretty vile and noxious stuff. And I mean really vile. And very noxious. It is no surprise that the statists think this is a good thing.

  34. bh says:

    OT:

    The Anthora seems to have been here forever, as if bestowed by the gods at the city’s creation. But in fact, it was created by man — one man in particular, a refugee from Nazi Europe named Leslie Buck.

    h/t Insty. Read it, it’s a story about the America going away now.

    Cheers, Mr. Buck. RIP.

  35. cynn says:

    SDN: Everyone wants to make excuses; like the saying goes, they’re like armpits.

  36. JD says:

    There is a difference between excuses and facts, cynn.

  37. cynn says:

    JD, don’t you have some golf balls to polish? I’d love to see your actual facts, rather than the hall-of-mirror websites you guys always reference. Thanks!

  38. bh says:

    Cynn is obviously the love child of Yogi Berra and Norman Mailer.

  39. Pablo says:

    Demented, yet incisive. That’s what I like about you, bh.

  40. cynn says:

    bh is wearing a fringed skirt and tasseled boots. Go big banks! Screw me even more. Yay!

  41. JD says:

    Do you think that if they get their way with this “reform” cynn, that they will not assfuck you whenever they feel like it?

  42. JHo says:

    Is Zero Hedge a hall of mirrors website, winebox?

  43. Mike LaRoche says:

    Let the markets work? Oh, yeah, that went well.

    The whole housing bubble happened because we didn’t let markets work. Instead, the government co-signed mortgages for people with bad credit – a recipe for disaster.

  44. Pablo says:

    cynn could turn a corner and walk into herself at Zero Hedge, JHo.

  45. cynn says:

    JD: Who is “they” and why won’t the usual political howitzer suffice? You don’t seem to get it, that unlike you haves, the have-nots who have paid for this crime are pissed.

  46. JHo says:

    unlike you haves, the have-nots who have paid for this crime are pissed.

    Vaguely true, except for the you-haves part. But you remain clueless to the vastly bigger picture millions are waking up to, cynn. You’re still thinking in the faintest of political conventions.

  47. JHo says:

    Start with the fact that this crime hasn’t been even remotely paid for.

  48. cynn says:

    OOh, yeah. The government demanded that shit loans should be made to fetuses even though it meant huge fees for the financial industry. And yes, it’s an industry. BECAUSE OF THE PRIVATE PROFIT!! Morons. Look, if you didn’t have money in this scam, you were stupit.

  49. bh says:

    bh is wearing a fringed skirt and tasseled boots.

    I’m still a little freaked out about how that Cynn knew that.

    It’s the weekend. Lighten up.

  50. Mike LaRoche says:

    if you didn’t have money in this scam, you were stupit.

    So did you have money in this scam?

  51. sdferr says:

    You gonna let Parcells cynn get away with that bh? Man up lady.

  52. JHo says:

    Who are you ranting at, cynn?

  53. cynn says:

    Jhoward: Not ranting at anyone. Everyone has a valid point of view. I’m simply saying that the big banks should be smashed up, sold off, and the taxpayers are beholden to nobody. Win-win.

  54. bdam says:

    “So did you have money in this scam?”

    I’m still waiting to find out who’s selling dollars for a nickel.

  55. SDN says:

    Hey, cynn, is the New York Times good enough?

    Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

    ”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

    Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

    ”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.

    Cynn, Swordfish. Some assembly required.

  56. Mike LaRoche says:

    I’m simply saying that the big banks government should be smashed up, sold off, and the taxpayers are beholden to nobody. Win-win.

    FTFY

  57. Darleen says:

    Requiring large institutions to maintain adequate capital against losses and allowing banks to be liquidated does not imply any automatic bailout or government backstop.

    jeesus, cynn, Read the bill.

  58. Darleen says:

    BTW

    Listened to John Campbell on Hewitt this afternoon and there’s another rotten easter egg in the bill no one’s paying attention to — the CPFA – Consumer Protection Finance Agency(iirc the title)

    Let me spell out the essense:

    ANY LOAN… get that? ANY LOAN of ANY KIND made by ANYONE that requires FOUR OR MORE payments to be repaid MUST BE REGISTERED with the CPFA and the STRUCTURE of that loan MUST BE APPROVED before the loan can be made.

    Read that again and try and imagine the scope and size of the bureaucracy to fulfill that. Makes the CPSIA seem like child’s play ….

  59. dicentra says:

    I hope the smarter Dems don’t fall for it.

    You’re assuming that Dems in the legislature actually do hate Wall Street and want to bring it to heel, but unfortunately, the dog-and-pony show of the Dems defending the people against Wall Street, with Big Biz agitating for free enterprise, has been a sham for a long time.

    Both Big Gubmint and Big Biz benefit by the “crackdown,” not to mention Big Labor and Big Carbon.

    They’re all in it together, finding ever more clever ways to milk us dry without our noticing it. If they can get us to thank them for it, well, BONUS!

  60. Darleen says:

    Both Big Gubmint and Big Biz benefit by the “crackdown,” not to mention Big Labor and Big Carbon.

    it’s like Mattel and the CPSIA – Mattel gets waivers and Mattel’s smaller competition gets fucked.

    Just think, all those neighborhoods jewelers, car dealers, mattress shops – who float their own paper and change promotional credit deals with the season. They’ll be SOL under the CFPA but the Big Bank will certainly be helpful to sell their Government Approved loan packages to small businesses

    for a price and control

  61. dicentra says:

    Cynn, this scam has been going on for almost 100 years. The politicians get it into their heads that Home Ownership Is The Holy Grail, because homeowners are more solid citizens than renters, but they confuse cause and effect, thinking that if you give someone marginally irresponsible a house it will straighten them out.

    They’re always wrong. The housing market always crashes after the bad loans lead to abuses (secondary infections), people get evicted by the truckload, but nobody ever gets to the “lessons learned” part.

    This time around, people got it in their heads that because racial minorities own homes at a lower rate than whites, then lenders must have been “redlining” neighborhoods and people, denying them loans on the basis of RAAAAACISM.

    So they pressured lenders to lower their standards so that more people could clear the bar. And by pressure I mean ACORN occupying bank lobbies and harassing bankers at their homes. I work in a bank’s customer call center right now, and I ran across some information that the phone bank was supposed to give out in case people asked about such things.

    The bank, of course, denied they were discriminating based on race, and I believe them, because I know the Left. They saw the means testing as an exact parallel with the poll taxes of yore, which were designed specifically to keep certain people from voting.

    Having no earthly idea how money and economies and such work, they failed to recognize that means tests aren’t racist at all but a way to protect both lender and borrower from a disasterous deal.

    But no: the lenders are the “haves,” so they must have gotten theirs by taking it from the have-nots.

    Oh, and the NYT saw it coming in 1999.

    In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

    Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

    In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans. …

    Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

    Do you not see the foundation being laid here? Wall Street’s contribution to the problem was the secondary infection, the original disease being the gubmint’s decision to lower lending standards and then to guarantee the bad loans. They knew it could happen.

    In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

    “From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

    They just didn’t care.

  62. bh says:

    Darleen, you’re on the money with the CFPA and consumer credit. Post about this.

    Please.

  63. Darleen says:

    bh

    I’ll have one up in the morning. I don’t step on Friday night ‘dillo.

    :-)

  64. bh says:

    Very wise.

    Sweet, thanks, D.

  65. bdam says:

    “Listened to John Campbell on Hewitt this afternoon and there’s another rotten easter egg in the bill no one’s paying attention to — the CPFA – Consumer Protection Finance Agency(iirc the title)”

    Just like health care it seems you’ll only get the truth from talk radio. Maybe they’ll try to sneak the death panels in this one?

  66. B Moe says:

    If all you got is stupid, I guess you might as well be proud of it.

  67. B Moe says:

    Go grooov3 on the ‘dillo thread, bdam. Try not to be so fucking white for a change.

  68. Dishman says:

    the bill would also give unlimited authority to the government to seize any company in the country (financial or not) deemed “too risky”, and either keep their assets (i.e. nationalize) or redistribute to favored political constituencies, like labor unions.

    Call it the “Nationalization Act”, wherein they may seize any company and redistribute its assets, without due process, without compensation, and without even the ugliness of a bill of attainder.

    “We had a vote, and decided that you’re poor now.”

  69. B Moe says:

    …the bill would also give unlimited authority to the government to seize any company in the country…

    Unless it is owned by illegal  undocumented aliens.  Then it is untouchable.

  70. Merovign says:

    I prefer to think of it as the “Stalinization Act,” Dishman.

    Couldn’t be less legal, they couldn’t care less.

    The inmates aren’t just running the asylum, they’re setting it on fire.

  71. JHo says:

    Something for meya. Yawn. Because of the insatiable progg curiosity.

  72. Rusty says:

    53.Comment by cynn on 4/30 @ 8:38 pm #

    Jhoward: Not ranting at anyone. Everyone has a valid point of view. I’m simply saying that the big banks should be smashed up, sold off, and the taxpayers are beholden to nobody. Win-win.

    Why not just get the government out of the banking industry and let the banks get as big as they can. Kinda like Switzerland.

  73. B Moe says:

    I’m simply saying that the big banks should be smashed up, sold off, and the taxpayers are beholden to nobody. Win-win.

    How do you feel about little banks being confiscated, pilfered, and the remains sold to the big banks?  Because that is whats most likely gonna happen.

  74. Pablo says:

    Why smash big banks that aren’t sucking the taxpayer teat? Live and let live, yo.

  75. bdam says:

    “How do you feel about little banks being confiscated, pilfered, and the remains sold to the big banks? Because that is whats most likely gonna happen.”

    Isn’t that what the FDIC has done for decades? To the benefit of all, and under much protestation when enacted?

  76. Mr. W says:

    Federal law has become a toxic mix of sops to the connected and power grabs by Congress, all under aegis the single-line commerce clause. At some point, some Governor with a set is going to refuse to play along and there is going to be a little dust up.

    Can’t come too soon for me. This bastardized vomitous whore of a Government cannot stand.

  77. SDN says:

    Gee, cynn, facts must work like garlic to vampires…..

  78. The Monster says:

    You know, our betters love to tut-tut about Tea Party signs calling people “socialist”…

    the bill would also give unlimited authority to the government to seize any company in the country (financial or not) deemed “too risky”, and either keep their assets (i.e. nationalize) or redistribute to favored political constituencies, like labor unions.

    I’m gonna have to go with “fascist”. Even in the case of Government Motors, they’re allowing other stockholders. But the threat of arbitrary seizure means that any offhanded comment by an administration official (“at some point, you have enough money”) becomes an implied threat, which will cause companies to alter their behavior in the attempt to avoid being the target of a takeover.

  79. […] Jeff brought attention to the bill’s transform banks into public utilities provisions. Today I’d like to point to the bill’s regulations of any consumer lending. […]

  80. JHo says:

    Isn’t that what the FDIC has done for decades? To the benefit of all, and under much protestation when enacted?

    meya still with its thumbs in its ears. The FDIC lost 7 billion dollars in the last week after gaining only $50 billion on three years advance bank fees. Surely it’ll all turn out well.

    Like all words, “exponential” means something. A reset is coming and its initials are probably G30 or IMF or something.

  81. bdam says:

    “Federal law has become a toxic mix of sops to the connected and power grabs by Congress”

    When do you think this started?

  82. SDN says:

    bdam, it started with Hammurabi. It has accelerated to toxic proportions in the US since FDR. And the US is the only country I’m concerned with. The whole point of the Tea Party, and Porkbusters in the Bush Administration, is to try and put the brakes on.

Comments are closed.