Congresswoman Maloney and the JEC Show Hints of Muscle

Yesterday's hearing at the Joint Economic Committee, convened by Congresswoman Maloney, gave me some hope that Congress might be thinking about taking some leadership in systematically restructuring our financial system. I highly recommend that everyone watch the video.

Sam Brownback, Republican Congressman Burgess, Democratic Congressman Cummings, Democratic Congresswoman Maloney--unlikely bedfellows, to say the least--all appeared to accept the arguments of Joseph Stiglitz, Simon Johnson, and Thomas Hoenig, that the current PPIP and TARP projects are not just foolish but dangerous, and that we need a radical restructuring of the response to the crisis.

The panel starts with discussions of economic failure, but ends with the problems of political failure. As Congressman Burgess said in the opening remarks, "Trillions of taxpayer dollars are at risk, but congressional approval is not needed for the plan to proceed …on its face this is a violation of the democratic process."

Stiglitz described how "the big banks ... tried to shape the view that there is no alternative than throwing [them] massive amounts of money." But he--and Johnson--also talked about how the revolving door between wall street and government is a real problem because of mindset, not just greed. If someone has "grown up" in the culture of big banks, he said, "they see things in this very peculiar way ... we've seen some outstanding examples of that" in this crisis. "We've seen all our regulators get captured," said Johnson.

The hearing is intelligent, thoughtful, and shows some signs of life in our most representative branch, suggesting that Congress--chaotic, strange, over-gerrymandered, but still set up to be responsive to popular sentiment--might actually take some leadership in reform.

Congresswoman Maloney, in particular, asked repeated questions not just about what should be done, but how--you could watch her thinking about how Congress could take leadership.

Notably, every single member of the panel advocated regulations that would lead to encouraging small and medium sized banks, a more diverse and truly competitive system. As Johnson said, we have to break up the banks--both for our economic future, and to constrain the chances for regulatory capture in the future.

A hearing is not action, and the actions to date have been trivial. But with pressure, we could see Congress taking responsibility for economic policy; as Elizabeth Warren said the other day, we need people involved for our policy to improve.

Comments (13)

1. the insidious ideology of satano-aynrando objectivism - touted as gospel, scientific fact now for several decades by such folks as Cato and company (and accepted as gospel by all too many) - has corrupted the judgement and lowered the IQ (as does any ideology too completely accepted) of all too many for far too long.

   every bit as insidious, inflexible, deterministic, and arrogantly touted as the end-all, unquestionable, answer to all, as classic marxism, satano-aynrando radical free market snake oil claptrap has poisoned or economy.

   playing on the natural weeknesses of all too many of us shaved apes, such mythology of gluttonous paradise of ever rising quarterly profits, endless opportunities for sales, and fairy tale fantasies of an all ownership society in whic incomes ever rise at 1950's/1960's levels, the dark prophets of unlimitted profit have wistled their lullaby and put to sleep millions of pop culturally lobotomized marching morons and greed drunk sociopaths and led us to this civilizational precipice.

   people will not go back to mindlessly spending every cent the have or are loaned. people CANNOT go back there, and any effort to try to reinstitute such a ponzi economy are doomed.

   if the stabilization of the banking industry is but a first step in a much larger shift in our economy toward realistic, sustainable growth policies, fine.

   if its an isolated flounering toward the state of things that existed before the big bust...

   oh well...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/22/2009 @ 11:21am

2. There, there "Ibbleblibble". I hope you feel at least a little better after that cathartic explosion.

   You are not alone, dude. We feel your pain.

   But this is encouraging news at least:

   "Sam Brownback, Republican Congressman Burgess, Democratic Congressman Cummings, Democratic Congresswoman Maloney--unlikely bedfellows, to say the least--all appeared to accept the arguments of Joseph Stiglitz, Simon Johnson, and Thomas Hoenig, that the current PPIP and TARP projects are not just foolish but dangerous, and that we need a radical restructuring of the response to the crisis."

   To anyone with their head removed from their posterior it's obvious that President Obama is making a colossal mistake if he doesn't very soon force a reformulation Geithner's "PPIP" shell game.

   In any case, now is an excellent time to embrace a philosophy of stoic resistance. Personally, I think I've long since progressed beyond the Kubler-Ross scale to the "Bemused Befuddlement" stage.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/22/2009 @ 12:00pm

3. Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/22/2009 @ 12:00pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   yeah...yeah...

   another hopeful sign i just heard on npr - geithner was recently quoted as acknowledging the US's culpability in this mess but also warned other countries that they cannot count on rampant, manic, american consumerism to return...

   that, at least, is hopeful.

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/22/2009 @ 12:12pm

4. President Obama and the Congress both have already demonstrated that large banks and financial operators own them entirely on policy questions. There will be no re-regulation of any meaningful sort. The priorities underpinning all big policy actions will be the priorities of the richest members of society, and those at the top of the financial system.

   Posted by syfriendly at 04/22/2009 @ 1:37pm

5. syfriedly, for once is correct, the Demoncrats and Obamanation are bought and paid for by world financial intrest and banking and are now set to ENSLAVE more Americans on a scale unimagined.

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/23/2009 @ 11:31am

6. An Iranian newspaper has reported that four American banks have issued formal requests to the Central Bank of Iran to open branches in Iran. Citibank, Goldman Sachs and two others left unnamed plan, according to the report, to establish temporary branches in an Iranian free trade zone if their requests are approved. The newspaper Jaam-e-Jam quoted an unnamed source explaining: "If they can work according to Iran's banking law, they will be allowed to open branches in Tehran and other cities."

   Is this where the bailout money is going?

   It is curious that American banks -- which probably wouldn't still be in business but for the taxpayers' largess -- would want to do business in a country where the government holds military parades featuring banners proclaiming "Death to America" and whose President has declared: "I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible."

   It is just as ominous in the long term that the banks would apparently be willing to "work according to Iran's banking law." So in other words, Western banks operating in Islamic countries have to abide by Sharia Finance restrictions. And meanwhile, Western banks operating in Western countries likewise are increasingly accommodating Sharia Finance restrictions.

   This is yet another manifestation of a stealth jihad phenomenon that is manifesting itself today in many areas besides finance: in Muslim countries, Muslims demand that Westerners conform to Islamic sensibilities, and likewise in Western countries, Muslims demand that Westerners conform to Islamic sensibilities. There is consistency, but no balance.

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/23/2009 @ 11:40am

7. There is, after all, so very much money to be made. Najib Fayyad of Unicorn Capital Turkey explains: "There are Islamic finance institutions operating in over 75 countries and with assets estimated at around US$700 billion, a figure which is growing at a rate of about 15% a year." Some of the West's leading financial institutions, including (besides Citibank and Goldman Sachs) Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dow Jones, HSBC Bank, Lloyd's, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Standard & Poors, have created "Sharia Advisory Boards," staffed with Islamic clerics and scholars, in order to help them bring their financial practices into line with Islamic norms.

   A benign exercise in multiculturalism? Not quite. Christopher Holton, Vice President of the Center for Security Policy, states that "America is losing the financial war on terror because Wall Street is embracing a subversive enemy ideology on one hand and providing corporate life support to state sponsors of terrorism on the other hand."

   He illustrates the absurdity of this with a trenchant analogy: "Imagine that it is 1943 and titans of Wall Street are promoting something called ‘Shinto Finance,' based on the Japanese theopolitical doctrine, while at the same time, they invest American dollars in foreign companies with active business ties to Imperial Japan."

   What's more, Sharia Finance is another tool of Islamic separatism: instead of assimilating into American society, Muslims are demanding, and receiving, parallel financial institutions that reinforce the idea that they are unique, not subject to the laws and norms to which the rest of us are subject -- a privileged class. At the same time, Sharia Finance initiatives are giving Islamic interests increasing control over Western economic life.

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/23/2009 @ 11:42am

8. In April 2008, journalists Alyssa A. Lappen and Rachel Ehrenfeld warned that "the growing U.S. and European financial crisis gives Islamic banking and shari'a finance proponents increasing leverage over Western markets and economics. In reality, their acquisitions of ever-larger stakes in U.S. and Western strategic financial and other assets, amounts to economic warfare against the West."

   The multiculturalist anxiety to accommodate Muslim principles and practices only makes Westerners even more vulnerable. Yet instead of engaging in careful strategic planning of both domestic and international initiatives, Citibank, Goldman Sachs and two other American financial institutions are working on opening branches in a country that has considered itself at war with the United States for thirty years.

   It is a test of Congressional resolve to regulate financial institutions. Will they allow the banks which American money has just saved to establish branches in a state sponsor of terrorism?

   This is the kind of brave new world the Obamanation administration and Demoncrat congress beholding to the banking system and financial services for their rise to seize power in the U.S.A. have created!

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/23/2009 @ 11:44am

9. One can only stare in amazement at the inanity of the above post. Seems to represent the right wing Jewish conspiracy theorist version of the National Enquirer.

   Upon a very brief web search I couldn't find the article's origin, but quoting a "Center for Security Policy" apparatchik is certainly revealing in itself. The "logic" employed by this little gem --thanks for the gift, "comanche"-- represents pretty much the same magic dust that lured the Cheney-Bush regime into its self-inflicted Middle Eastern morass.

   I'm reminded of a truly stellar and authentic precious stone from the past, Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World".

   Amazon review excerpt:

   Demons, UFO's, the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, fairies and the like are all investigated in this incredible non-fiction book by the late Carl Sagan. Pseudoscience, and those who perpetuate it, find their place in today's society among those who want to believe in the impossible. In fact, Sagan too admits that he would love to find life on other planets, among other things (he was, after all, an advocate of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). However, science today has not been able to prove that such things exist. As the book states, "the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.".....

   I truly feel that this is a book everyone should read. Not only does Sagan do an excellent job of attempting to popularize science, but he also tries to teach people how to think for themselves rather than to be force-fed information from less-than-trustworthy sources. The demons in this demon haunted world are both those who perpetuate such celebrated fallacies, as well as those who believe them without question.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/23/2009 @ 12:16pm

10. As has been previously suggested in this magazine, investment banks need to be separated from community banks. A report from AP today by Jeannine Aversa quoted "experts" that this was the "most synchronized recession in world history". This should not be a surprised with a "Globalized Economy" that is not only "too big to fail", but it is also too big to control. The emphasis on world trade, as opposed to national economic development, makes nations too interdependent, and failure in one economy infects the world. National economies quarantine the world from the infection of recession/depression goes with globalized "free trade"!

    Posted by pjcasey at 04/23/2009 @ 12:24pm

11. Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/23/2009 @ 12:16pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    Now that was an ignorant display;

    Daily Star-arab

    ynet-jewish

    presstb-iran

    persion journal-iran

    Posted by comancheamerican at 04/23/2009 @ 1:40pm

12. Comanche,

    If I was looking to obtain shit from you, I'd simply squeeze it out of your head.

    Fact is, I didn't care to waste more than a few femtoseconds searching for the origin of your monumentally ignorant posting of worthless tripe from who-knows-what-godforsaken right wing nut job web site.

    Turns out --after a 10 second search-- the ORIGIN of the Islam hit job you posted was some piss head doofus (Robert Spencer) at Human Events --a sewer hole site for right wing ranters. Surprise, surprise.

    Next.

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/23/2009 @ 4:12pm

13. Silly Indian,

    Here's one more post for good measure --a snippet from the Human Events "About Us" page:

    HUMAN EVENTS is the news source President Reagan called his "favorite newspaper" and we still hold high the Reaganesque principles of free enterprise, limited government and, above all, a staunch, unwavering defense of American freedom.

    HUMAN EVENTS gives voice to the great conservative thinkers of our era -- Robert Novak, Michelle Malkin, L. Brent Bozell, Terence Jeffrey, Bruce Bartlett, Thomas Sowell, David Limbaugh, Oliver North, Pat Buchanan and many more.

    HUMAN EVENTS is the periodical in which the peerless Ann Coulter, author of the smash bestseller, Godless, drives multicultural defeatists up the wall. (Recent sample: "Baby formula doesn't kill people. Islamic fascists kill people.")

    HUMAN EVENTS is the home of Jihad Watch - the fearless watchdog column that alerts you to the true intentions and deadly plots of the greatest threat to world peace since the fall of the Soviet Union. Hillary Watch, another exclusive service, keeps you fully informed of the ongoing schemes, intrigues and Clintonian machinations hatched in the name of the woman (and loving hubby) who want to return to the White House in 2008.

    ~I particularly love the strained insertion of a plug for the "peerless" Ann Coulter complete with a butter knife sharp quotation.

    It's difficult to conjure a finer advertisement for an individual's brain dead status than the fact that Human Events apparently represents the highly honored toilet bowl from which they drink.

    Bottoms up, "Comanche"!

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/23/2009 @ 4:38pm