Modern Day Mutually Assured Destruction

Before the most recent report on Lehman Brothers’ use of Enron-like methods to hide debt from its balance sheet, Greece had recently been accused of similar shenangians.  The sovereign was under scrutiny for swaps it had set up with Goldman Sachs that allowed the nation to mask its real debt load, effectively cooking its books in order to meet the fiscal standards required for admittance into the Eurozone in 2001.  This was not the first time this type of deceptive transaction had been consummated.

The joyfully iconoclastic financial blog Zero Hedge had uncovered a little-known 2001 report by a little-known Italian Economist named Gustavo Piga which showed that Italy had used almost the exact same transactions as those used by the Greeks to mask their finances and gain entrance to the Eurozone in 1997.  For his courageous exposé, most disturbingly Piga’s life was threatened.  Why was this the case?

Piga had been the first to find “…a real-world example of how sovereign borrowers can use derivatives to window-dress public accounts as a means of achieving short-term political goals.”  As the Council on Foreign Relations which collaborated with Piga on the report noted, Italy was able to do this by “taking a cash advance in 1997 against an expected foreign exchange profit in 1998.  Under accounting rules, this is simply impermissible.  Borrowers cannot use loans to anticipate capital gains on a bond.”  The transactions allowed Italy to artifically reduce their deficit in 1997 by increasing their deficit in 1998.

And according to the CFR, what was the significance of this Enron-like Italian book-cooking?

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Tags: alexander hamilton, Andrew Jackson, bailouts, banking, debt
Posted Mar 17th 2010 at 5:31 am in Congress, Economics, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 9025047 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amellon/2010/03/17/modern-day-mutually-assured-destruction/Modern+Day+Mutually+Assured+Destruction2010-03-17+12%3A31%3A31Andrew+Mellon

Liberty and Government: An American Tipping Point

Thomas Paine said that “It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.”  He did so amidst the long shadow of a centralized government which regarded individual rights as secondary to its own.  Today, “56% of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey  . . . say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”  They do so in the shadow of a government seeking to take control of nearly 17% of the US economy, if not that portion of our lives, in the name of caring for our health.

For any that have cared to listen to the debates over multi-trillion dollar spending programs, tax hikes, cap and trade or health care, at issue is not simply whether those huge government programs would provide lasting solutions – they will not – at issue is our basic right to Liberty.  Quite frankly, it was never the assumption of the Founding Fathers that it was the role of government to provide a moving target standard of living for Americans.  It was their sincere hope that the government of limited powers they set up would allow people to pursue their lives, Liberty and happiness.  To do so they, wanted to hamstring government’s ability to act – not ours.

Since then, of course, the scale has tipped in favor of government power over our pursuits.  Each step along the way, those concerned with our Liberty have heard the echoes of Senator Daniel Webster when he said:

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”

As you consider his words, it may worthy to also consider the lives of Americans, at the dawn of these United States, and the lives of Americans today.

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Tags: american founders, Articles of Confederation, daniel webster, expanded government, founding fathers
Posted Mar 1st 2010 at 7:51 am in Culture, History, Local Government, Politics, Regulation, Tax Reform, Tea Party, federal spending | 8196676 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2010/03/01/liberty-and-government-an-american-tipping-point/Liberty+and+Government%3A+An+American+Tipping+Point2010-03-01+15%3A51%3A32Thomas+Del+Beccaro

The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… Very Poor

A group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.

Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion, I do not think the letter works.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.

Some of those involved with the statement said that the 1960 “Sharon Statement” served as their inspiration. The Sharon Statement, intended to give some ideological umph to Goldwater conservatives, is an effort that works much better as a rallying cry to action. Sadly, the Mount Vernon Statement falls a little flat in this respect.

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Tags: alexander hamilton, Barry Goldwater, constitutional principles, George Washington, james madison
Posted Feb 23rd 2010 at 5:18 am in Congress, Culture, Economics, Education, History, Politics, Tax Reform, Tea Party, federal spending | 7865450 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/wthuston/2010/02/23/the-mount-vernon-statement-a-poor-mans-manifesto-very-poor/The+Mount+Vernon+Statement%2C+A+Poor+Man%E2%80%99s+Manifesto%E2%80%A6+Very+Poor2010-02-23+13%3A18%3A12Warner+Todd++Huston

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

Frances Fox Piven: Thomas Jefferson Would Be ‘Stunned’ at America Today (But Not For the Reason You Think)

Frances Fox Piven, honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, can arguably be considered the mother of ACORN.  At least, her ideas and theories set ACORN, and its parent, the National Welfare Rights Organization, onto a path of creating and manipulating crisis situations to further their agenda of a more equal “distribution of wealth” in America. In other words, socialism.

It’s a path, I believe, that runs contrary to our country’s original intent.  But Piven doesn’t think so.  In her book, “Challenging Authority,” she quoted both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

What I found most bizarre was the apparent disconnect in Piven’s mind between individual rights and property rights, particularly the idea of acquiring as much wealth as one wishes without fear of government encroachment. It’s impossible to believe that Jefferson, Adams and the other founders – most of them very successful entrepreneurs – could have envisioned or approved of a massive national government that siphons property and economic rights from private citizens.

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Tags: ACORN, American Revolution, Frances Fox Piven, John Adams, King George III
Posted Feb 9th 2010 at 5:53 am in ACORN, Culture, Featured Story, News, Politics | 7136677 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/02/09/frances-fox-piven-thomas-jefferson-would-be-stunned-at-america-today-but-not-for-the-reason-you-think/Frances+Fox+Piven%3A+Thomas+Jefferson+Would+Be+%27Stunned%27+at+America+Today+%28But+Not+For+the+Reason+You+Think%292010-02-09+13%3A53%3A35Kyle+Olson

ObamaCare Transparency Promise Broken

Transparency be damned.  It seems as if many of the elites in Washington, D.C. were for transparency before they were against it.

President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all promised and pledged transparency as part of a covenant with the American people to allow them to take power.  Those promises have been broken.  One Senior Congressional Staffer tells Big Government that “for elected officials that promised the most transparent Congress ever, I never believed them, but it is stunning how fast they are going back on their promises as if they think the voters are too dumb to remember things they said 3 years ago.” (more…)

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Tags: C-SPAN, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, Politico
Posted Jan 7th 2010 at 2:51 pm in Congress, Obama, Politics | 55534147 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bdarling/2010/01/07/obamacare-transparency-promise-broken/ObamaCare+Transparency+Promise+Broken2010-01-07+22%3A51%3A27Brian+Darling

Daley Machine Nervous: Political Realignment in the Works?

For some time now — here, here, and here — I have been arguing what at first must have seemed counterintuitive: that a great political realignment may be in the works.

Today, in The Washington Post, William M. Daley warns his fellow Democrats that they are in danger of bringing just such a realignment about. After alluding to the announced retirements of four centrist Democrats in the House and to Parker Griffith’s switch to the Republican side, Daley argues that “the Democratic Party — my lifelong political home — has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.”

The political dangers of this situation could not be clearer.

Witness the losses in New Jersey and Virginia in this year’s off-year elections. In those gubernatorial contests, the margin of victory was provided to Republicans by independents — many of whom had voted for Obama. Just one year later, they had crossed back to the Republicans by 2-to-1 margins.

Witness the drumbeat of ominous poll results. Obama’s approval rating has fallen below 49 percent overall and is even lower — 41 percent — among independents. On the question of which party is best suited to manage the economy, there has been a 30-point swing toward Republicans since November 2008, according to Ipsos. Gallup’s generic congressional ballot shows Republicans leading Democrats. There is not a hint of silver lining in these numbers. They are the quantitative expression of the swing bloc of American politics slipping away.

Griffith and the Democrats who have decided to retire are, Daley says, “the truest canaries in the coal mine.”

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Tags: bailout, Bill Daley, cap-and-trade, centrist politics, Daley Machine
Posted Dec 24th 2009 at 11:01 am in Politics | 5193893 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/prahe/2009/12/24/daley-machine-nervous-political-realignment-in-the-works/Daley+Machine+Nervous%3A+Political+Realignment+in+the+Works%3F2009-12-24+19%3A01%3A45Paul+A.++Rahe

Government by the Courts, Not the People: Federal Court Thwarts State Budget Cuts

California has long been the land of fruits and nuts – and now runaway federal courts.

Of course, a long time ago, in a place far, far away, the legislatures of individual States of these United States, had a far greater say in the lives of their citizens.  Indeed, for the first 150 years of our existence, the federal government – the Congress and the Courts – had little to say or do in the lives of Americans – the Civil War excluded.

With the advent of the Democrats’ Big Government New Deal, of course, all of that changed.  The Roosevelt Democrats increased the federal budget tenfold – but not without the considerable help of a very activist Supreme Court.  Recall that Roosevelt threatened to pack the Supreme Court which then proceeded through resignations and reinterpretations to redefine our Constitution.  The result was a Big Government takeover the like of which the Supreme Court originally struck down during Roosevelt’s first term.

It also was the dawning of the age of the activist courts which threatens our Liberties to this very day.  Thomas Jefferson, of course, warned us of this possibility.  According to Jefferson:

The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary.  That body, like Gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, & unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulphing insidiuously the special governments [i.e, the states] into the jaws of that which feeds them.

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Tags: Central Valley, Delta Smelt, federal judges, Franklin Roosevelt, judicial activism
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 8:00 am in Justice/Legal, News, Politics, State Politics | 1928231 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/10/22/government-by-the-courts-not-the-people-federal-court-thwarts-state-budget-cuts/Government+by+the+Courts%2C+Not+the+People%3A+Federal+Court+Thwarts+State+Budget+Cuts2009-10-22+15%3A00%3A02Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Reagan Was Noble, But Obama Got the Prize

In an age where style trumps substance in so many ways, few can be surprised that a fledging President would receive a Nobel Peace Prize.  It bears repeating that Obama was President for just a matter of days before the nomination process was closed.  Nevertheless, and without any substantive accomplishment, Obama was awarded the Prize – unanimously – apparently for things to come.  No wonder 58% of Americans believe that politics was behind the choice.

By contrast, consider the accomplishment of Ronald Reagan who, last I checked, did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  According to Margaret Thatcher, Reagan won the Cold War “without firing a shot.”   In the words of Henry Kissinger, it was “the most stunning diplomatic feat of the modern era.”  In the wake of that victory, millions upon millions of people were set free – and, as history has shown, a free people are far more likely to be a peaceful people.

So why didn’t Reagan get the Prize?  The answer is simple, the political Left, including the Nobel committee, didn’t like the way Reagan went about setting people free.   Reagan, we well remember, installed missiles in Europe.  He did so because he believed what Thomas Jefferson told us long ago:  “Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace.”  Reagan, in time, would modernize Jefferson’s wisdom by advocating “peace through strength.”

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Tags: Barack Obama, Berlin Wall, Cold War, Eastern Europeans, Europe
Posted Oct 11th 2009 at 11:00 am in Culture, History, Politics | 15406113 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/10/11/reagan-was-noble-but-obama-got-the-prize/Reagan+Was+Noble%2C+But+Obama+Got+the+Prize2009-10-11+18%3A00%3A28Thomas+Del+Beccaro

‘Big Government’ Rises Again

n7h6ycxmg5In 1995, President Bill Clinton stood before the nation and proclaimed, “The era of big government is over.” The following year, the federal budget deficit stood at 1.4% of GDP. Thirteen years later, in 2008, the deficit had doubled, to just over 3% of GDP. This year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal budget deficit will equal 11.4% of GDP.

As George Will would say, “Well.”

This is the real source of our “summer of discontent.” Yes, millions of Americans spent the month of August holding Tea Parties, attending town halls, organizing, marching and protesting against ObamaCare, i.e. Congressional and Administration proposals to reconstruct the entire health care sector. But to suggest that health care alone is at the root of this backlash is to miss the forest for the trees. To paraphrase Democrat strategist James Carville, “It’s the big government, stupid.”

Since last September when the financial markets stumbled, we’ve seen a Wall Street bailout, government takeovers of AIG, Citigroup, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM, Chrysler, and numerous banks. The Federal Reserve has opened its discount window to almost all-comers and has taken the unprecedented step of aggressively buying up the federal government’s own debt. Congress rushed through a “stimulus to nowhere,” moved closer to a “cap-and-trade” remake of the energy sector and openly talked about higher taxes and more regulation. (more…)

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Tags: AIG, American Revolution, banks, Bill Clinton, Boston Tea Party
Posted Sep 9th 2009 at 5:26 pm in Congress, Culture, Economics, Featured Story, History, Justice/Legal, Media Criticism, News, Obama, Politics | 98274 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2009/09/09/big-government-rises-again/%27Big+Government%27+Rises+Again2009-09-10+00%3A26%3A17Mike+Flynn