Is Dodd Ending Too Big to Fail?

Surprise, surprise. Sen. Chris Dodd’s financial-regulation proposal raises the possibility of substantial progress on the road to ending “too big to fail” (TBTF) and bailout nation for banks and other financial institutions.

How the Dodd bill will play out in the final details remains to be seen. But when you read the Dodd fact sheet, there are a few key items to like.

First, under the Dodd scheme, large complex companies will have to submit plans for rapid and orderly shutdowns should they go under. These are called “funeral plans.” Then, in terms of these orderly shutdowns, the bill would create an “orderly liquidation mechanism for the FDIC to unwind failing systemically significant financial companies. Shareholders and unsecured creditors will bear losses and management will be removed.” Good.

Then comes the “liquidation procedure.” This spells out that the Treasury, FDIC, and Federal Reserve must all agree to put companies into the orderly liquidation process. “A panel of three bankruptcy judges must convene and agree — within 24 hours — that a company is insolvent,” the bill goes on to say. It also states that the largest financial firms will be assessed $50 billion for an upfront fund that will be used if needed for any liquidation. This is a kind of debtor-in-possession safety net for the bankruptcy-liquidation process. Also good.

Finally, under the heading of bankruptcy, the bill stipulates that most large financial companies are expected to be resolved through the normal bankruptcy process. This is the key. However, it is not an airtight case for bankruptcy. It is possible that a government-resolution process could keep big banks alive or in conservatorship, such as with Fannie and Freddie. That would be wrong. Very wrong. In fact, one of the flaws in the Dodd bill is that there is no mention of Fannie and Freddie.

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Tags: Andrew Breitbart, bank bailout, bankruptcy, Chris Dodd, Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Posted Mar 17th 2010 at 10:59 am in Congress, Economics, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 9075065 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/lkudlow/2010/03/17/is-dodd-ending-too-big-to-fail/Is+Dodd+Ending+Too+Big+to+Fail%3F2010-03-17+17%3A59%3A16Larry+Kudlow

Dodd’s Main Street Punishment Bill

With the focus this week on health care’s “home stretch” and concerns about government limiting the ability of ordinary Americans to make choices about medical treatment, another threat to freedom is accelerating that could harm Americans’ abilities to start a business, invest for retirement, and get affordable home and auto insurance policies. On Monday, after abruptly shutting down earnest negotiations between Senate Republicans, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd wannounced a partisan so-called financial regulatory reform bill that he will try to ram through his committee within a week.

And this 1336-page bill will do nothing to put restrictions on two entities that were proximate causes of the housing bubble, the government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and instead hit Main Street businesses and entrepreneurial firms that had nothing to do with the crisis. The bill’s specific provisions would  penalize the corporate structure of public companies from Google to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, tax prudent banks stable home and auto insurers and their policy holders to pay for the bailout of the next Lehman or AIG, depress revenues from incorporation fees  in Sen. Harry Reid’s Nevada and Vice President Biden’s Delaware by federalizing corporate governance laws, and put thousands of retailers who issue gift cards or even offer layaway plans under a new Federal Reserve bureaucracy to regulate credit.

Here are the highlights of some of most destructive provisions for the freedom of entrepreneurs, investors and consumers.

1. The shareholder rights jujitsu with “proxy access” and other corporate governance mandates.

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Tags: bank bailout, Chris Dodd, Consumer Financial Protection Agency, financial services reform, TARP
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 1:01 pm in Congress, Economics, News, Obama, federal spending | 9079091 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jberlau/2010/03/16/dodds-main-street-punishment-bill/Dodd%E2%80%99s+Main+Street+Punishment+Bill2010-03-16+20%3A01%3A26John+Berlau

Financial Regulation, Health Care, and Could Insurers Demand the Next Bailout?

It’s time for your weekly dose of Coffee and Markets, featuring The New Ledger’s Francis Cianfrocca, a podcast brought to you by the fine folks at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and LibertyPundits.com, your home for conservative podcasts. In this week’s edition, we’ll talk about the fallout from a failed attempt by Senators Dodd and Corker to make new financial regulations bipartisan, the latest activity on the bond markets, and what’s next for Obamacare.

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You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

TNL: Obamacare’s Two Americas
Frum: Will Health Reform Cause the Next Bailout?
The Hill: No Votes on HCR Pile Up
HCN: Democrats Consider Drastic Moves to Pass Health Care Bill
T-Shirt: Lobby the Rahm Emanuel Way

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Tags: bailouts, Bob Corker, Chris Dodd, Coffee and Markets, financial regulations
Posted Mar 12th 2010 at 9:14 am in Coffee and Markets | 881105 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/newledger/2010/03/12/financial-regulation-health-care-and-could-insurers-demand-the-next-bailout/Financial+Regulation%2C+Health+Care%2C+and+Could+Insurers+Demand+the+Next+Bailout%3F2010-03-12+17%3A14%3A37The+New+Ledger

VICTORY! Senator Corker Calls Off Deal With Dodd

Grassroots conservatives were rightly up in arms over Senator Corker’s game of footsie with far left Democrat Chris Dodd. The two worked together on President Obama’s effort to impose a massive new regulatory scheme on the American economy. Dodd, of course, is one of the architects of the current financial crisis. His decades long support of ACORN, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act should have disqualified him from these negotiations in the first place.

The word from the halls of the Capital last week was that Corker was still trying to cut a deal with democrats… a bad deal.

But, it looks like Corker bailed after the constant pressure from conservatives this past week…
Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) just backed out of a deal with Dodd and democrats to establish a new federal bureaucracy to regulate the financial industry.
Congress Daily reported:

Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd said today he will unveil legislation to revamp the nation’s financial regulatory system without the support of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., with whom he had been working to strike a bipartisan deal.

“Over the last few months, Banking Committee members have worked together to try and produce a consensus package. Together we have made significant progress and resolved a many of the items, but a few outstanding issues remain,” Dodd said in a statement.

Dodd said he intends to unveil the bill Monday and hold a markup during the week of March 22 to move the bill out of committee.

“I have been fortunate to have a strong partner in Senator Corker, and my new proposal will reflect his input and the good work done by many of our colleagues as well,” Dodd added. “Our talks will continue, and it is still our hope to come to agreement on a strong bill all of the Senate can be proud to support very soon.”

Corker is scheduled to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. to give his version of the breakdown of the talks.

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Tags: bank bailout, Bob Corker, Chris Dodd, Consumer Financial Protection Agency, financial services reform
Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 9:16 am in Congress, Economics, News, Politics | 87834113 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/03/11/victory-senator-corker-calls-off-deal-with-dodd/VICTORY%21+Senator+Corker+Calls+Off+Deal+With+Dodd+2010-03-11+17%3A16%3A04Jim+Hoft

The Little Fed Report that Could…and Did Create a Housing Bubble

While most of the public is consumed by the health care-death-march spectacle, Senators Bob Corker and Chris Dodd are making serious progress on the Senate’s “financial services reform” legislation. The legislation was dead just a couple weeks ago, but Sen. Corker thought he could snag a seat at the grown-up table and stepped forward to ‘cut a deal.’

As is the new DC operating procedure for major legislation, there are almost no firm details on the current language. We know there will be a large new federal bureaucracy, somewhere within government, to provide “consumer protection” for financial products. We know there will be a $50 billion tax on banking customers to provide a permanent bailout fund, or as Sen. Corker would describe it, a “wind-down” fund. Unfortunately, we also know that the bill will do nothing to reform Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, who continue to drain billions from the U.S. Treasury.

We’re told the Corker-Dodd Bailout Bill is a necessary response to the financial melt-down triggered by the collapse of the housing bubble. But, if it doesn’t take even small steps to reform Fannie and Freddie, then, simply, it isn’t a serious proposal. Its like rebuilding the porch on a house, while ignoring it’s cracked foundation.

Washington politicians would rather ignore this, but the housing bubble was the result of very explicit government policy. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, officials from both parties became addicted to forever pushing homeownership rates higher than the laws of economics would otherwise allow.

If you want to identify the roots of the homeownership-cult among elected officials, fire-up the way-back machine and check out a little report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the early 90’s. Under the leadership of Richard Syron, then-President of the Boston Fed (more on him later), the report was the result of discussion among the bank’s staff and the usual collection of academics and professional activists. It was to make recommendations to the nation’s bankers on addressing alleged discrimination in mortgage lending.

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Tags: ACORN, Andrew Cuomo, bank bailout, Bob Corker, boston fed
Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 5:22 pm in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, News, Politics | 8721072 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2010/03/10/the-little-fed-report-that-could-and-did-create-a-housing-bubble/The+Little+Fed+Report+that+Could...and+Did+Create+a+Housing+Bubble2010-03-11+01%3A22%3A33Mike+Flynn

The Corker-Dodd-Alinsky Bill? : Center-Right Coalition Letter Warns about ‘Proxy Access’

Capitol Confidential and Jim Hoft have done an excellent job laying out concerns with the potential “compromise” bill that comes out of Sen. Bob Corker’s negotiations with Chris Dodd.  But when it comes to the destructive provisions that could come out of a Dodd-Corker deal, they may have just scratched the surface.

In addition to the troubling new powers for a new nanny-state consumer agency and possibly the Federal Reserve added to the prospect of billions more in bailouts for reckless financial firm, the bill may also contain the sneaky  “proxy access” power grab for unions, radical environmentalists, and other groups on the Left. This rule, inspired by Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, is contained in Dodd’s “discussion draft” bill from late last year.

As I detailed in BigGovernment last week, “proxy access would federalize and override decades of state law governing the structure of corporations and force publicly-traded companies to put shareholders’ nominees for a board of directors on a company’s proxy ballot along with the firm’s own nominees for those positions.” Many shareholder groups that are pushing this are union pension funds, the radical Tides Foundation, and other progressive groups — from animal rights to anti-Israel — who place their own political agenda items at the expense of ordinary shareholders.

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Tags: Alan Hevesi, bank bailout, Bob Corker, capitol confidential, Chris Dodd
Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 8:53 am in Big Labor, Congress, Economics, News, Politics | 8711438 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jberlau/2010/03/10/the-corker-dodd-alinsky-bill-center-right-coalition-letter-warns-about-proxy-access/The+Corker-Dodd-Alinsky+Bill%3F+%3A+Center-Right+Coalition+Letter+Warns+about+%27Proxy+Access%272010-03-10+16%3A53%3A44John+Berlau

Bob Corker’s Bailout Bureaucracy

It appears that the Bailout Bob Corker continues to ignore the pleas of his conservative allies and constituents and is close to reaching a deal on establishing a new consumer regulatory bureaucracy that in the words of Sen. Dodd, will be like one we have not seen before. Corker has told CNBC that the last stick point is not the principle of new regulation — he has capitulated on that point — but “administrative issues.”

The legislation includes Corker’s pet project, a “strong resolution mechanism for unwinding troubled companies.” News to Corker: For over 200 years, America had such a mechanism — it was called bankruptcy. But “unwinding” troubled companies is a code word for BAILOUT. The Federal Government, via the Federal Reserve, would be empowered to break-up, subsidized and bailout companies. As House conservatives warned during the House debate, enactment of the bill would establish bailouts as the official policy of the United States for decades to come. That’s why the House bill authorizes $4 trillion for the Federal Reserve.

Adding insult to injury, Reuters also reports that the Corker “reform” bill does not address the main culprit in the financial crisis — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It does not address the issues associated with Community Lending that encouraged banks to lend to people who could never pay back their loans. It does not address ACORNS. All it does it layer more Washington bureaucracy on top of existing Washington Bureaucracy. Nice work, Bob.

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Tags: ACORN, bank bailout, bankruptcy, Chris Dodd, community lending
Posted Mar 9th 2010 at 8:31 am in ACORN, Economics, News, Politics, federal spending | 8673020 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/09/bob-corkers-bailout-bureaucracy/Bob+Corker%27s+Bailout+Bureaucracy2010-03-09+16%3A31%3A23Capitol++Confidential

Dodd Praises Corker for Trying to Create Powerful Independent Agency, ‘Like We’ve Never Had Before’

Friday night on National Public Radio, a fitting place to announce an unprecedented growth in federal power, Sen. Chris Dodd praised his partner in crime Sen. Bob Corker for working together to create an “independent, autonomous, rule- writing entity, unlike anything we’ve ever had before.”  That is exactly why Tea Party activists from across the Volunteer State gathered in front of Corker’s office this past week to protest his back room dealmaking.

Why would  Corker ignore his constituents and abandon all conservative principles to work for legislation that earns him praise from Chris Dodd of all people?  Here’s why.

The big banks and Wall Street firms support the President’s Financial Reform package.  The House passed bill contains the mother of all bailouts — a $4 trillion authorization for the Federal Reserve to continue to bailout firms for decades to come.  In fact, as conservatives in the House reminded us when the Obama/Frank bill was on the floor, this bill makes bailouts the permanent policy of the US government.  And who gets those bailouts?  The same banks and firms that support the bill.  And who does Wall Street rain campaign contributions on?  None other than Bailout Bob Corker.

Corker has raised over $3 million from Wall Street and related firms since being elected to the Senate.  That’s a lot for a freshman Senator.  It seems like Wall Street is finally getting a good return on their investment.

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Tags: bank bailout, Bob Corker, car dealers, check cashing, Chris Dodd
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 7:11 am in Congress, Economics, Politics, Regulation | 8567033 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/08/dodd-praises-corker-for-trying-to-create-powerful-independent-agency-like-weve-never-had-before/Dodd+Praises+Corker+for+Trying+to+Create+Powerful+Independent+Agency%2C+%27Like+We%27ve+Never+Had+Before%27+2010-03-08+15%3A11%3A13Capitol++Confidential

Monday Open Thread: Wall Street Edition

Today, in 1817, the New York Stock Exchange was founded. In its life, it became the financial capital of the world. Senators Chris Dodd and Bob Corker are now negotiating to move that title overseas.

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Tags: Bob Corker, Chris Dodd, NYSE
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 3:11 am in Open Threads | 8562639 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/08/monday-open-thread-wall-street-edition/Monday+Open+Thread%3A+Wall+Street+Edition2010-03-08+11%3A11%3A56Publius

Corker, Bailouts and a New Federal Bureaucracy: One Indisputable Fact

Let’s be clear, the creation of a federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) is a liberal’s dream.  The agency would have the power to regulate businesses of any size. The House passed legislation, authored by Barney Frank, would as Rep Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) put it in remarks before the House Financial Services Committee “create a brand new, large draconian federal agency with new sweeping powers.”

The bill came to the Senate where Senator Shelby stood strong on principle and won. Negotiations broke down and the Democrats’ big government dream was all but dead. No new agency and (on this issue at least) no new vast government powers.

Then Sen. Corker entered the fray and took it upon himself to negotiate a deal to revive the CFPA with the master of the financial crisis Sen. Dodd.

Before Corker got started, Shelby spokesperson Jonathan Graffeo warned that “Republicans on the committee have several principles upon which they’ve tried to negotiate with Dodd, to no avail” and that “If (Corker) adheres to those principles, he will likely find himself at an impasse as well.”

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Tags: bank bailouts, Barney Frank, Bob Corker, Chris Dodd, Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Posted Mar 5th 2010 at 5:29 am in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, News, Politics | 8476243 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/05/corker-bailouts-and-a-new-federal-bureaucracy-one-indisputable-fact/Corker%2C+Bailouts+and+a+New+Federal+Bureaucracy%3A+One+Indisputable+Fact2010-03-05+13%3A29%3A46Capitol++Confidential

Stop the Madness! Stop the Corker Bank Bailout Sellout

Do Republicans Not Get It? Did they not pay attention to the thousands of tea parties this past year? Did they not see the hundreds of thousands of tea party protesters across the nation? Did they miss the million protesters who marched down the streets of Washington DC on September 12th?

(Photo via Instapundit and Mary Katharine Ham)

Are the Republicans really that blind? Do they Not Care? Even awful Speaker Pelosi is warming up to the Nazis tea party protesters.

After all of the posturing and preening and shouting and yelling and marching and tea party protesting, America is about to get the whole Democrat agenda shoved down our collective throat. Barack Obama announced today that Democrats are going to use reconciliation to jam Obamacare through Congress and essentially nationalize one-sixth of the US economy. And now, Republicans are about to offer them the rest of the American economy on a silver platter thanks to Senator Bob Corker. Congress is currently working to create a whole new consumer protection division within the Federal Reserve. This new division will give the Fed more power and focus on consumer protection. And, a Republican, Bob Corker, is for some reason leading the charge to create this whole new bureaucracy. The Wall Street Journal reported:

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Tags: ACORN, bank bailout, Bob Corker, Chris Dodd, Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 8:44 am in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, News, Politics | 8429481 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/03/04/stop-the-madness-stop-the-corker-bank-bailout-sellout/Stop+the+Madness%21+Stop+the+Corker+Bank+Bailout+Sellout2010-03-04+16%3A44%3A07Jim+Hoft

The Bob Corker Bailout Sellout

While the media and most of the public are consumed by the health care death march, the Senate is deep in negotiations to pass a sweeping re-regulation of the financial sector. As the public knows, ObamaCare is an attempt to regulate 1/6th of the US economy. The financial ‘reform’ proposal, though, will impact the other 5/6ths of the economy. In many respects, the financial services ‘reform’ is much more damaging to the economy and our future competitiveness. Worse, its passage is being aided by Bob Corker.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with his complete capitulation and total surrender on the Financial Services bill.  The bill, passed by the House with a $4 trillion bailout provision, making bailouts the permanent policy of the United States government, was on it’s last legs until Corker came to the rescue.  Now the Washington Post and other are reporting that Corker and ethically-challenged, retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) are on the verge of a deal to breathe life back into the regulatory and bailout scheme.

Let’s be clear – the President and the hard left want this bill. David Reilly of Bloomberg described the measure as Barney Frank’s $4 trillion gift to the banks. Reilly wrote:

Here are some of the nuggets I gleaned from days spent reading Frank’s handiwork:

– For all its heft, the bill doesn’t once mention the words “too-big-to-fail,” the main issue confronting the financial system. Admitting you have a problem, as any 12- stepper knows, is the crucial first step toward recovery.

– Instead, it supports the biggest banks. It authorizes Federal Reserve banks to provide as much as $4 trillion in emergency funding the next time Wall Street crashes. So much for “no-more-bailouts” talk. That is more than twice what the Fed pumped into markets this time around. The size of the fund makes the bribes in the Senate’s health-care bill look minuscule.

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Tags: bank bailout, Barney Frank, Bloomberg, Bob Corker, Chris Dodd
Posted Mar 3rd 2010 at 8:01 am in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, News, Politics, federal spending | 8371099 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/03/the-bob-corker-bailout-sellout/The+Bob+Corker+Bailout+Sellout2010-03-03+16%3A01%3A59Capitol++Confidential

The Democrat Strategy for 2010: Bye Bye, Bayh

Senator Evan Bayh’s decision not to seek re-election this November makes him just the latest among numerous Democrats who announced they are quitting. They have looked at the Obamacare debacle, the crippling debt, the millions of lost jobs, and the looming national security disaster heralded by the increase in jihad terror attacks on American soil, and they’re getting out. They know that Americans are waking up to how the big government policies of the Democrats are continuing to hurt our economy, and are ruinous for America.

Swindling Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) will not seek re-election; the drug-addled Congressman Patrick Kennedy will not be seeking re-election in Rhode Island; Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry and Senator Byron Dorgan are leaving. Then there’s Michigan Democratic Lt. Governor John Cherry’s decision to end his floundering bid for governor. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter is also retiring. Not to mention the stunning late December party switch by freshman Alabama Representative Parker Griffith — just to mention a few.

And in Bayh’s whiny withdrawal speech, he made sure to take parting shots at the Republicans under the guise of the well-worn canard of their “lack of bipartisanship.” As if the Democrats worked with Bush.

The Party of No? Hardly. It’s the Save-America party, it’s the Say No to Communism party. Bayh didn’t speak of the irreparable damage the Democrats are doing to this country. He whimpered that only the Republicans said no to a jobs bill (although the government doesn’t create jobs, the private sector does) and that the Republicans wouldn’t sign off on another bloated, useless, cost-prohibitive commission to investigate bloated, useless, cost-prohibitive government spending. Funny how even a Democrat who is thought of as honorable and measured showed no honor in his parting remarks. He went out like an ankle-biting Democrat, pathetic and small.

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Tags: bailout, Barack Obama, byron dorgan, Chris Dodd, collectivism
Posted Feb 15th 2010 at 2:39 pm in Congress, Culture, News, Obama, Politics | 75830217 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pgeller/2010/02/15/the-democrat-strategy-for-2010-bye-bye-bayh/The+Democrat+Strategy+for+2010%3A+Bye+Bye%2C+Bayh2010-02-15+22%3A39%3A35Pamela+Geller

The Folly of Financial Reform

I come bearing bad news.  Reform of our financial services industry is going to be a failure.  Leave aside the preconceived notions that politicians will come up with faulty or halfhearted regulations, that they are writing bills in cahoots with the big banks or conversely ACORN & Co. or that the Obama administration in general is anti-business.

While these ideas may all have merit, the reason that financial reform will be disastrous is that all legislation points towards dealing with symptoms rather than addressing the root causes of our financial collapse. While of course the narrative in the MSM centers on greedy “fat cat” bankers taking big risks and predatory lenders taking advantage of hapless borrowers, the fact of the matter is that in every aspect of this crisis government was the major enabler.  Ironically all financial reform centers around giving government more power.

Consider housing.  As we know, under the CRA and due to the “activities” of ACORN and subsidization from our taxpayer-owned siblings Fannie and Freddie, banks granted mortgages to borrowers far riskier than they would have in an uninhibited mortgage market.  That one of the innovations to meet the demand for mortgages was, for example, the adjustable-rate mortgage which reset to sky-high rates after a specified amount of time was not predatory but rather the natural way for banks to compensate for the massive incremental risk being taken by lending to uncreditworthy borrowers.

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Tags: ACORN, bailouts, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, CRA
Posted Feb 13th 2010 at 8:16 am in ACORN, Congress, Economics, Politics | 7435880 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amellon/2010/02/13/the-folly-of-financial-reform/The+Folly+of+Financial+Reform2010-02-13+16%3A16%3A35Andrew+Mellon

More Bailouts? Forever? Not So Fast

Pollster Frank Luntz has confirmed what conservatives, Tea Party activists and, well, every other American not affiliated with Wall Street banks have known all along — voting for bailouts is a political death sentence.

Big Government has obtained a copy of a new poll conducted by The Word Doctors that should send shivers down the spine of proponents of the Financial Reform bill that passed the House of Representatives in December.  The legislation created a $150 billion bailout fund for future bailouts for banks and corporations and authorizes the Fed to spend up to another $4 Trillion.

Luntz’s poll asked whether “you would be more or less likely to vote for your member of Congress if they voted for a Financial Reform bill that contained a fund to bail out banks and Wall Street?”  The results:  5% more likely.  79% Less Likely.  An incredible 52% of respondents said that they would be “much more likely” to vote against bailout supporters.  A copy of the Luntz poll can be found here:

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Tags: bailout fund, bank bailout, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Federal Reserve
Posted Jan 30th 2010 at 9:19 am in Congress, Economics, News, Obama | 6728668 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/01/30/more-bailouts-forever-not-so-fast/More+Bailouts%3F+Forever%3F+Not+So+Fast2010-01-30+17%3A19%3A38Publius

Harry ‘Pinky’ Reid Goes Off-Color

It takes a lot to shock us Nevadan’s. We live in a state where gambling is open and legal. Prostitution is legal in some counties.  Taxi cabs are wrapped with pictures of strippers and ads promoting Las Vegas take great pride in telling visitors that they can come here, do what they want, go home and pretend like it never happened (What happens here, Stays here!).  You can’t tell me a little ol’ statement by Pinky from Searchlight (as Harry Reid called himself in a 2004 campaign ad) would set off a firestorm bloodier than a Mike Tyson ear bite. It has. It also sets up a bunch of spy vs. spy scenarios that would make Bugsy Segal proud.

In 2008, during the Barack Obama campaign for President, Reid said privately that it would help Obama that he was a “light-skinned”  African-American, and that Obama speaks “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”.  The quote is in the new book titled, “Game Change”. Reid has given all the apologies and I’m sure he hopes this all goes away quickly, there is that election coming up Nov. 2

Let’s get this out of the way. Harry Reid is not a racist. I’ve known him for 26 years and that is not a problem here. Of course, words have meaning. Republicans George Allen and Trent Lott had their political careers virtually destroyed for much less and Democrats worked overtime to create the impression that the words were enough to send then packing. In 2006, Allen was hammered non-stop for calling an opposition campaign worker, “macaca”. It took days for the media to figure out what a “macaca” was, but they would make sure it was enough to run Allen out of his Virginia Senate seat, destroy any chances he had at the White House, and give the Democrats a majority in the Senate.

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Tags: byron dorgan, Chris Dodd, Danny Tarkanian, george allen, Kennedy dynasty
Posted Jan 11th 2010 at 9:03 am in Congress, Politics, State Politics | 57954113 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/rfutrell/2010/01/11/harry-pinky-reid-goes-off-color/Harry+%27Pinky%27+Reid+Goes+Off-Color2010-01-11+17%3A03%3A06Ron+Futrell

Dodd And Other ‘Retiring’ Democrats Show Why Term Limits Are A Bad Idea

I don’t like life long politicians any more than the next guy, but the suggested remedy to the problem, term limits, are a bad idea.

First of all, term limits strike me as a smack in the face to the idea that we should be allowed to choose whomever we want to represent us, for as long as we want them to represent us. Much like the disgustingly offensive campaign finance “reform” where politicians decided to punish the average voter because elected officials are too greedy and corrupt to keep their hands out of the cookie jar, term limits seem equally offensive in a similar way.

Why should the voters of one state have to say goodbye to a good legislator simply because the voters of another state repeatedly elect a creep?

Voters in Colorado might not like the fact that voters in Massachusetts continually reelected a hypocritical, drunk, manslaughtering, liar to term after term after term, but that is their right. Massachusetts voters clearly have no shame, but under the constitution, they have the right to be greedy scum buckets interested only in the pork their clout can achieve. (Our apologies to anyone in Mass who had the dignity and ethics to vote against Kennedy before death finally drove him from office)

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Tags: Chris Dodd, Democrat Corruption, Kennedy, Robert Byrd, term limits
Posted Jan 7th 2010 at 5:47 am in Congress, Featured Story, Politics | 56178304 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amarcus/2010/01/07/dodd-and-other-retiring-democrats-show-why-term-limits-are-a-bad-idea/Dodd+And+Other+%27Retiring%27+Democrats+Show+Why+Term+Limits+Are+A+Bad+Idea2010-01-07+13%3A47%3A23Andrew++Marcus

Treating Wall Street Like the Mafia

Perhaps Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) thinks of himself as a modern day John Sherman. In 1890, Ohio Sen. Sherman set out on a mission to establish “just competition” laws and level the economic playing field. His quest culminated in the dismantling of monopolies—such as American Tobacco and Standard Oil—and the passage of new laws prohibiting malicious competitive practices. In a similar way, Dodd now seeks the power to tear apart any company he considers a risk to the national economy. But unlike Sherman, Dodd isn’t out to create the best possible conditions for competition to thrive. He’s out for blood.

Dodd’s plan for overhauling Wall Street regulations, released mid-November, includes a proposed new organization: the Agency for Financial Stability (AFS). This new regulator would be tasked with identifying and addressing “systemic risks posed by large, complex companies as well as products and activities that can spread risk across firms.” This represents one piece of the most extensive proposal to reform financial services regulation—topping even the ridiculousness of the Obama plan and Barney Frank plan. Which is saying a lot.

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Tags: Agency for Financial Stability, Al Capone, Barney Frank, Bonanno crime family, Chris Dodd
Posted Nov 28th 2009 at 2:51 pm in Congress, Economics, News, Politics | 3437037 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/arandazzo/2009/11/28/treating-wall-street-like-the-mafia/Treating+Wall+Street+Like+the+Mafia2009-11-28+21%3A51%3A30Anthony+Randazzo

Exclusive Book Excerpt: Fannie and Freddie’s Starring Role in the Housing Debacle

Despite the few voices of caution, risk and leverage had become a national fixation, embraced both on Wall Street and in government. The SEC and the Fed, the main regulators in charge of monitoring the buildup of risky assets on the banks’ books, together with the rating agencies, were the modern-day equivalents of Nero fiddling as Rome burned.The fire in this case was the massive and rapid buildup of mortgage debt on the balance sheets of the banks; by 2006 it was approaching $1 trillion and heading higher without so much as a peep from the traditional watchdogs.

Still, the risk taking and leverage went beyond the brokerage houses and the banks. The GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were in the game as well. By now, Fannie and Freddie had fully and completely conceded their original mandates to the whims of the Washington political class, which demanded “affordable” housing for all, even those who couldn’t afford it. The politicians were giddy with Fannie and Freddie’s conversion from staid mortgage banks to subprime lenders that would make Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of the largest subprime lender in the markets, Countrywide Financial, envious.

It was an evolution that took years in the making. As HUD secretary, Andrew Cuomo boasted in one report in the late 1990s that the new mandates he was imposing on Fannie and Freddie to ramp up subprime lending “could be of significant benefit to lower-income families, minorities, and families living in underserved areas.”

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Tags: 'Friend of Angelo', adjustable rate mortgages, Alan Greenspan, Andrew Cuomo, Angelo Mozilo
Posted Oct 29th 2009 at 5:45 am in Congress, Economics, Exclusives, Featured Story, History, Politics | 2239445 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cgasparino/2009/10/29/exclusive-excerpt-fannie-and-freddies-starring-role-in-the-housing-debacle-inflate-housing-bubble/Exclusive+Book+Excerpt%3A+Fannie+and+Freddie%27s+Starring+Role+in+the+Housing+Debacle2009-10-29+12%3A45%3A25Charles+Gasparino