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Secretary of the Treasury Geithner appeared before Congress this week. The advance scoop was that he would be proposing new regulations for the financial industry. What a great idea! You might have said, “It’s about time!” Otherwise, what will prevent another round of crises and meltdowns? But, our hopes were dashed. Geithner simply asked for more authority to take over and bail out an even bigger number of companies. That’s not going to put a stop to the wild speculation that is tantamount to gambling by the financial industry. In the business of fire fighting, it would be far better to prevent the fire than to fight the fire. Geithner reminds me of a fire chief who wants to buy bulldozers to clean up after the buildings have burned. Maybe Secretary Geithner has a prevention program up his sleeve. Maybe it’s too early to judge the executive branch. One can still hope for rules for higher reserve requirements, elimination of naked gambles by bankers and insurance companies, etc. On the other hand, the Congress has been around for years and years. What have they been doing? Your representatives and senators in the U.S. Congress have thousands of people working on their staffs. The Congress has no excuse whatsoever.
Click here to contact your representatives in Washington, D.C.: – Byron |