The Result of No Regulation

There's a time for free market and a time to step in and slap people.

In the AIG situation, lack of regulation allowed executives to write their golden tickets by crafting contracts that allowed them to receive crazy bonuses under any circumstance. That includes failure. That includes incompetence. And that includes getting those bonuses no matter what the money source is.

WITH regulation, bonuses would be prohibited if the funds came from taxpayer money.

WITHOUT regulation, we're fucked with iron-clad contracts.

And that, my friends, is the dark truth about "libertarians" (what many embarrassed Republicans like to call themselves).

Republicans and "libertarians" like the ol' hands-off approach. It'll fix itself.

Obama's pissed off enough about it to step in. That's what Democrats do.

Call it socialism. Call it government intervention. Call it Penelope for all I care. It has to be done. Why?

The government's #1 job is to protect us. Just as much as that means military protection from enemies and law enforcement protection from terrorists, it also means economic protection from corporate thieves and corporate terrorists. That's what we're dealing with here.

Questions?

Comments

[donna]

No, true libertarians would simply go shoot the AIG execs for being evil greedy bastards. And their congress critters and lobbyists, too. ;^)

[vicki]

Can we get some of the guys from the line at GM & Ford to tell those fuckwads about Contract Renegotiation? The kind of renegotiations that seem perfectly acceptable: the kind that lower the wages of the middle class. for the good of The Company!!

I'll bet they can tell Liddy how the Contract Renegotiation is done.

::

[David Aquarius]

Lowes has a sale on pitchforks and torches. Get 'em while their hot!

Maybe an effigy or three hanging from the streetlights on Wall Street.

Something has to be done to get these bastards attention. They look at us with contempt, we should respond in kind.

Santelli was just the tip of the iceberg. Most of those goons on Wall Street think of us as nothing but an ATM. Well.... I think we should take a few of them to school.

Lesson One: Big Daddy Bush is gone, the party is OVER. Time to pay the band.

[Scorpio]

Someone suggested a very narrow tax bill taht would tax bonuses greater that 1M for employees of bailout companies at 100%.

Likely that would take care of the problem.

[Sandi]

I vaguely remember that Bjorn Borg left Sweden because the tax rate was 110% in his tax bracket. That also sounds good.

And while we're at it, OPEC is talking about raising prices - let's reactivate the Windfall Profits Tax on oil companies.

After all, although much money has disappeared, there's still quite a bit out there!

[dAVE]

deregulation = lawlessness

So, whenever someone says "deregulation" substitute "lawlessness" and see how it sounds.

Like - "what we need right now in the banking sector is more lawlessness."

It just doesn't sound as attractive, does it?

[David Aquarius]

Personally, I'm damn tired of hearing about Capital gains tax, death tax, all that other bullshit that the Repugs throw at us whenever we start talking about reining in this debacle that can only be described as Ebenezer Scrooge's wet dream.

There have always been provisions in the Capital Gains Tax to keep family farms and small businesses exempt but the Dems WON'T fight back! They let the Repugs frame the debate. Someone get some spine out to Congress, STAT!

And furthermore, put a goddamn muzzle on those bastard Blue Dogs. We need a tight team to rail Obama's relief through the Goddamn Congress, the last thing we freakin' need is a bunch of blabbermouth simpletons making the case for the enemy. Evan Bayh, STFU!!!1

This is getting down to the nitty gritty, folks. The Class War is being thrust upon us. The only weapon we have is our voice. They control the airwaves, the print media and the talking heads...But we got the Web.

We should start a Virtual March on Wall Street. Inundate web sites with comments and emails. Hundreds of thousands of requests for support or services. Bury them with bytes.

Make it an email with a image of townspeople with torches and pitchforks. That ought to get their attention.

[Bethie]

Holy Crap, anyone watching TDS. Samantha Bee as a Money Honey Bee talking to a trader about distroying companies by ganging up to make money short selling stock. They guy was almost giggling on glee about how he and his associates made money while they distroyed companies with no problem until they created a problem...a run on the stock if you will to create a panic selling scienario. When she started asking him about what happened to the layed off workers he looked at her like she started speaking a foreign language.
She has a great line, "So, you just robbed the grave, you didn't like...ya know...shoot the guy."

[Bill K]

We can however take our money out of such institutions. I've been looking into credit unions. stay out of debt, don't buy anything new. I'm tired of being played as a fool.

[lawton]

Selling short was and is the worst idea the SEC ever allowed to become legal on Wall Street. All it takes is one rumor (lie) and the ball begins to roll backward!