Financial Reform And The "S" Word

Recently, there has been a lot of fuss over the “S” word. Is Obama Socialist? Some say yes. Some say no. Some say the it’s unhelpful to say so. I think that’s true, but the whole discussion is a distraction. Use whatever words you like, but The United States has never been in the situation where the government owns and/or controls around half of the economy. I don’t care what you call it, it’s un-American and it's unhealthy.

You might not want to call it “fascism” either, because that conjures images of gas ovens and things. But, fascism is simply the collaboration of industry and government. Now, Obama is pressing for “financial reform.” Obama just gave a speech in which he spoke of free markets not being “a license to take whatever you can take, however you can get it.” That sounds like something that would already be illegal to me. It sounds pretty much like the definition of theft.

Obviously, companies don’t “take” things. People buy things. Do Wall Streeters “gamble” with other people’s money? Well, every time anyone buys something, they are placing a bet that the payoff will be at least worth the price. People invest in financial instruments calculating on a payoff. If the investment firm turns a good profit for them, that increases the likelihood of other investors. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. You win or lose.

Now, Senator Carl Levin of an investigations subcommittee, just released emails showing that Goldman Sachs, while trading in financial instruments bundled with real estate investments, was at the same time “shorting” real estate investments, betting on a fall in the market. Do you suppose Levin might have wanted to give a little push to the call for regulation of financial firms? Anyway, given the bad loans that mortgaging companies, particularly government cooperative ones like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were giving, what Goldman was making was a good bet of a real estate bubble burst. Financial companies, like everyone else, are trying to make money. Goldman Sachs did. That’s called success.

All of this dustup is a ruse. Liberals in government love to talk about regulation, fretting unregulated this and unregulated that. They’re going to get tough on these firms and bring them to heel. And the public is supposed to say, “Yeeaaah! My hero!” Some of us just say, “Aww shuddup!” It’s all a crock! If Republicans sign on to this thing, it’s because they are betting on the public believing it’s heroic. “Get tough?” What they want is to make the financial industry, like the effort with health care (medicine), a public utility. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s more than a little footsie going on between government and Goldman Sachs. What “regulation” means to these big financial companies is profit. How?

How fascism works is that the largest players in industry get tied up with government. When government gets its arms around an industry, the smaller players are squeezed out. Expansion of the market is restricted or eliminated. All business is funneled through these larger firms: profit, Profit, PROFIT! Goldman Sachs will face a Congressional committee this week as a voluntary whipping boy, hopefully to advance the “getting tough” heroic perception, and to further cement its relationship with government. And, they will gladly pay back the government by submitting to the “getting tough” of regulation and taxation. Sure, take another 10% in taxation if I can hog the market! That’s how fascism works. It’s a symbiotic government and industry relationship. All of this is un-American baloney! Overall economic growth will be restricted. There’s already talk of a “new normal” of this higher unemployment. It is hoped that these will be dependent on government crumbs, called perpetually renewed “unemployment benefits.” With our fiscal state now, the value of those unemployment dollars will fall as the dollar is inflated away as government can’t meet its obligations. But, you should just be thankful that you’re getting something, right? Welcome to the new vision for America!

Here is Gerald Celente talking about this financial reform proposal. If Republicans sign on to this, it’s because they think there’s something they can’t sell you. I call it the truth, though fine people like Ben Stein whom I really like a lot, think it’s necessary because Wall Street investors are irresponsible. Ben also thought the “stimulus” was necessary. He also called for higher taxation on “the wealthy” like him, to pay for health care for the less fortunate. After all, they can afford it, right? He just doesn’t understand that when you corrupt the market, everything is not equal. You are “spreading the wealth,” the creation of which is being restricted. Ben Stein is a fully marinated Keynesian Republican with conservative inclinations. His father was a Keynesian Republican economist. But Keynesianism was and is an error.

Stein even admits that he doesn’t often defend Obama. But here, Obama has suddenly and mysteriously grown a branch of wisdom and virtue. Stein even talks about “the adults” stepping in to control “the frat boys.” Adults? One can only see that through the distortion of a Keynesian lens. Barack Obama is a knickers and penny-loafers wearing snot-nosed college Narcissist. I’ve known waitresses and ditch-diggers that were more mature adults. Ben Stein is still a great guy with misplaced faith. But tell Republicans to oppose new regulation of financial entities.

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