Wednesday, April 4, 2012

All aboard the deregulation train! Toot toot!

Robert Reich's commentary from today's Marketplace:
Last week the Dallas Fed issued an explosive report (PDF) -- predicting America will face another financial crisis and be forced to bail out Wall Street again unless the biggest banks are broken up.
...
According to The Dallas Fed report, Wall Street's power makes it almost impossible to control because "they have the lawyers and the money to resist the pressures of federal regulation." This means the Dodd-Frank act, which is supposed to prevent another financial calamity, is woefully inadequate.
Let me get this straight:
Deregulation -> financial shenanigans -> economic collapse. Economic collapse -> even more corporate money in politics -> further deregulation. Further deregulation ->  economic collapse.

Seems kind of... simple. Logical.

Not that anyone in power will listen, right? Financial regulations are job killers*, after all, despite the fact that we know from experience that sustained growth comes from preventing banks from acting recklessly. But, no one in power wants to listen either, otherwise they can wave bye-bye to the gravy train.

We are so fucked.

*I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how financial institutions are job creators, but that's neither here nor there.

(Have I ever mentioned that I [heart] Robert Reich?)

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