Friday, November 6, 2009
Senator Sanders Introduces Bill to Break Up the Too Big to Fails
As Reuters notes:
An independent U.S. senator on Friday introduced a bill that would give the government the power to identify and break up financial firms that are "too big to fail," an idea that is catching on.
"If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist," said Senator Bernie Sanders in a statement.
"We should break them up so they are no longer in a position to bring down the entire economy," he said.
Sanders is an independent outside the U.S. political mainstream. But he is not the only one looking at break-ups.
Representative Paul Kanjorski, the Democratic chairman of the capital markets subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, is working on a break-up power amendment.
It would give a new government systemic risk council break-up power, with clearance from the president.
"It's the natural action of capital to grow and exceed. Now we're going to contain it," Kanjorski told CNBC television.
For background on the too big to fail issue, see this, this and this.
Sanders' legislation would give the Secretary of the Treasury ultimate decision-making power:
Sanders' legislation would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner 90 days to list commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds and insurers that he deems too big to fail.That wouldn't be so bad if Obama fires Geithner and replaces him with someone independent of Wall Street.
2 comments:
→ Thank you for contributing to the conversation by commenting. We try to read all of the comments (but don't always have the time).
→ If you write a long comment, please use paragraph breaks. Otherwise, no one will read it. Many people still won't read it, so shorter is usually better (but it's your choice).
→ The following types of comments will be deleted if we happen to see them:
-- Comments that criticize any class of people as a whole, especially when based on an attribute they don't have control over
-- Comments that explicitly call for violence
→ Because we do not read all of the comments, I am not responsible for any unlawful or distasteful comments.
Posts
This is little more than populist gobbledegook, if it is wrapped in a nice, fuzzy, warm sentiment about the potential for change favoring a -kinder and gentler- reality than has -ever- existed.
ReplyDeleteTo contrast this view, let us just take the time to envision the briefing Barack Obama received in the weeks following his -colorful- election.
The first thing Barack was told, is that things are not what they seem. -To which no doubt the over-confident -Southside -chain-smoking -Chicagoan responded, "Oh! I know that!" probably sealing the deal with a glistening toothy-wink...
"Sit down, Barack. This is going to take a while," he was informed.
So much for the Leader of the Free Whirled, or change anyone can really believe in.
The wars are going full steam ahead, especially when we have our recollections forced upon us about all that unfortunate, and unwholesome, 2008 campaign rhetoric.
The candidates couldn't have been more pacifist, -as I recall. Even Johnny -Crybaby- McCain was extolling the virtue of letting the Iraqis run their own country for a while, if forcibly.
The TBTFs (as under the Bush Administration) are the battleships, destroyers and aircraft-carriers of an ongoing world war currently being waged in the econosphere.
It is being waged at many levels, but right now, the econosphere is where the action is, -right now anyway-
So, understand everyone, these TBTFs exist and the behest of the federal government -from top to bottom. The TBTFs are being funded like Detroit was funded when the US entered the Second World War.
Utopia requires these things, -again.
A depression is a very long and horrible time that seems to go on forever and forever. But depressions do end, -followed immediately -most often- by world war, which is even worse than a depression, much, much worse.
But damn, folks, just think how glad everyone will be when the world war is finally over!
Kiss that girl, sailor.
Who is this everyone you are talking about? If there is a WWIII there may not be anybody left on this orb.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me before these TBTF outfits existed we were not on the brink of complete collapse , we are now.
The TBTF's do exist by government grace, but even government is not big enough to cover their butts . Just look at the balance sheets of the top 5, their is not enough money in the world to save their asses.
The scariest words I ever heard were "Spin up missiles 1 thru 16, prepare to launch" it felt like the real one. All a good little sub sailor could think of was that all he loved was gone and now he would even the score. There won't be any girls to kiss, shipmate!