The revelation that the American taxpayer is now the World's Banker of Last Resort, as revealed by the new FinReg bill (yet another assault on real, as opposed to crony capitalism), means Americans must face the disturbing reality that our national sovereignty is being completely undermined. And those undermining it have only one over-riding loyalty: a level of naked self-interest beyond anything the world has ever witnessed.
For these people, all that matters is themselves. If they ruin a country or two--or ten--in the process of gratifying that self-interest, so be it. As the late Leona Helmsley once remarked, "only the little people pay taxes." That statement, though less than accurate, neatly sums up the mindset of the "Internationalists," for whom everyone who is not one of the self-anointed elite is a "little person."
The ultimate expression of this elitist mindset is the European Union. Only elitists could envision a world where "parochial concerns," more commonly known as national interests, should take a back seat to the grandiose schemes of self-anointed--and self-appointed--bureaucrats. These are the folks who decided hard-working German little people should bail out shiftless Greek little people, which was bad enough. But what they did to the Irish little people is obscene. The Irish government bailed out Irish bankers, who, like most of the "best and brightest" elitists, somehow missed the idea that real estate values move in two directions. Now European Union is bailing out the Irish government via the IMF, which as it turns out, is being bailed out by the little people known as American taxpayers.
The obscenity? A 5.8% interest rate placed upon those little people--in order to protect the interests of the bankers who screwed up everything to begin with.
Here's a thought. If the Irish little people are going to have to suck it up, how about the elitist bankers and the politicians getting a little dose of their own medicine? I have a two-fold plan: first, those bankers and politicians who engaged in criminal activity must go to jail. Not pay a fine, not make restitution, or, as in the case of a particular American Congressman, not merely be censured. The big house, the orange jump suit, the burly bunk-buddy--no exceptions. If we can toss people in the pokey for robbing a liquor store, people who hold up entire nations shouldn't be immune.
Second, for those who merely made an honest mistake, a multi-year ban on running for political office, or working in the financial industry. When "oops" puts millions of people on the unemployment line, the last thing they need to see are the bumblers who caused the mess reincarnated in some other financial or government position--where they get another chance to screw up.
In America, that means hacks like Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd, both of whom enabled the meltdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would have never gotten in sniffing distance of writing the new FinReg bill, also known as the Dodd-Frank Financial bill. The very same bill, by the way, which contains the very same language regarding minority lending practices that engendered the housing meltdown. Dodd is doing everyone a favor and retiring. Franks should have been barred from running for re-election.
Here's the big picture: for the One World elitists, national sovereignty is an inconvenience, and "Too Big To Fail" is their ultimate trump card. That is why it is critical that people understand the difference between genuine free-market capitalism and the crony capitalism which is being sold as the exact same thing.
Genuine capitalists are willing to live within the boundaries that define the capitalist system. Good business decisions are rewarded, bad ones are punished, and genuine competition produces the most efficient outcomes.
Crony capitalists are capitalists in name only
Crony capitalists are capitalists in name only. The are the ones who enjoy the fruits of their successes, while taxpayers underwrite their failures. They despise competition because it endangers their positions at the top of the food chain. They will collaborate with bureaucrats in every way possible to insure that the deck remains stacked in their favor, even if it means going through some short-term pain for long-term gain. That is why, for example, Goldman Sachs was more than willing to pay a $550 million fine for putting together a security investment "designed to fail" as the SEC put it, for a top client who made billions betting against America's housing market. No one went to jail, and Goldman's increased market share more than made up for what they paid out in fines and legal fees.
Millions of people losing their homes as a result of the collaboration between big government and crony capitalists? Little people. The same little people who never make the connection between the outsourcing of jobs and the collaboration of internationalists in government and crony capitalist firms who make it happen. The same little people who progressives can get riled up in a populist rage regarding "greedy Wall Street brokers and bankers," even as those little people fail to understand that expanded government protects the status quo of crony capitalists they pretend to excoriate, even as genuine capitalists struggle to survive.
How many little people know that, until this last election, the overwhelming majority of campaign contributions from bankers and Wall Street firms went to Democrats in the three previous election cycles? Perhaps a better term for such contributions would be protection money, as in "rail against us all you want as long as the status quo remains unchanged." Don't believe such double-dealing is possible? Ask yourself how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the epicenter of America's financial meltdown, remained completely unmentioned in a so-called "comprehensive" financial reform package. Ask yourself why American taxpayers are bailing out European banks. Ask yourself why there has been such a tremendous effort to denigrate the capitalist system itself.
Is there a better way to prevent genuine capitalism from flourishing than making it seem like the root of all evil?
Bottom line: thoroughly corrupt people in positions of power can corrupt the best economic system in the world. And they can make it look like such corruption is an absolute necessity, which is the essence of the slogan "too big to fail." An article written by Thomas M. Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City for the
New York Times cuts through all the baloney: such institutions are too big too succeed, and need to be broken up into smaller entities. Entities which don't threaten entire nations, or the world itself if they go belly up. Entities which will re-invigorate the greatest economic system the world has ever known:
Capitalism--minus the cronies.
