No Time To Waste
Secretary Geithner needs sweeping powers to do all kinds of things like take over financial institutions that the government thinks might possibly need taking over. So he needs to move fast … faster than fast. No time to look this deal over … quick. First this on Wednesday
Allowing the Treasury Department to take over a broader range of companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president’s Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators.
That’s long enough. Now this on Thursday:
The new rules will likely require financial institutions to hold more capital as a buffer against losses and will bolster risk-management standards. All told, the proposals would mean significant expansions of power for the Treasury, Federal Reserve and other regulators.
It isn’t clear which companies would be brought under this umbrella. Administration officials believe they could include banks’ parent companies, insurance conglomerates and certain hedge funds, among others. They said it would depend on a company’s size, leverage, reliance on short-term funding and role in the financial system.
Confused … don’t worry, but don’t dawdle either. Oh … and guess what won’t be regulated. The Democrats favorite cash cow and George Soros money maker … hedge funds.
One area where the U.S. is departing from its European allies is the Obama administration’s approach to hedge funds, private-equity firms and venture-capital funds. Mr. Geithner, in his remarks, said all firms over a certain size should register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and disclose certain information so government officials can determine whether their size or complexity puts the broader economy at risk. But he said the administration doesn’t seek to regulate hedge funds like banks.
So let me get this straight. The one unregulated part of the market, hedge funds, continue unregulated while we pile even more regulation on the regulated. Wait … times up … gotta move fast. More to do.
This is from Thursday’s hearings.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avEQ7UftVsM
A crisis is terrible thing to waste. Not like we haven’t heard this all before. I blame Bush.
3 Comments
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I believe that on this blog I have posted (or tried to) that the Madoff scam amongst other things will be use a the context to transfer regulatory power to the federal reserve. This is the fox watching the hen house. Through their open market operations the FED are trading in the markets and have a CLEAR conflict of interest as a regulator. This is a complete attempt to usurp power from the US government and US people and place it into the hands of the private institution named the Federal Reserve. You may say that Giving the power to Geithner is not giving it to the Fed, well, Geithner was the President and CEO of the NY Federal Reserve Bank. Where do you think that his loyalties lie? I assure you that it is not with the American people.
The motto of this Keystone Kop administration seems to be "never time to do it right, always time to do it over." Ram it through and worry about the consequences later! Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
And I used to think Obambi's naivete was his biggest fault, but the predictions of socialism are coming true too.
Reminds me of that old song (circa 1950) about the shrimp boats coming back to harbor. "We have to hurry, hurry home; we have to hurry, hurry home" per the song. The only difference is that Mr. Geithner is trying to hurry, hurry us into socialism before we realize where he is hurrying us to.