(1) There is nothing sacred about the Fed(2) Power is overly centralized in the Executive branch and thefederal government(3) Power is overly concentrated in agencies that are not designed tobe responsive
We ought not get rid of the Fed--I would fight hard to keep it--butit's a critical point, because once people realize the flexibility ofour federal government, they can open up their imaginations about whatis possible in response to this, or any other, crisis. We need not putall our trust in Bernanke, let alone Geithner or his replacement (if he gets replaced); Congress actually can lead on nationalizing the banks and reorganizing them.
My own hope is that we first shift power away from the executive tothe Congressional branch--this only requires that we speakdifferently, collectively. Instead of "what should Obama do...?" or"what should Geithner do...?" about the banking crisis, we oughtalways be asking, "what should Pelosi do...?" and "what should myCongressmember do...?" If we talk differently, we will start holdingdifferent people accountable. We will, and can, demand moreimagination and leadership from our Congressional representatives.
Zephyr Teachout
(1) There is nothing sacred about the Fed(2) Power is overly centralized in the Executive branch and thefederal government(3) Power is overly concentrated in agencies that are not designed tobe responsive
We ought not get rid of the Fed–I would fight hard to keep it–butit’s a critical point, because once people realize the flexibility ofour federal government, they can open up their imaginations about whatis possible in response to this, or any other, crisis. We need not putall our trust in Bernanke, let alone Geithner or his replacement (if he gets replaced); Congress actually can lead on nationalizing the banks and reorganizing them.
My own hope is that we first shift power away from the executive tothe Congressional branch–this only requires that we speakdifferently, collectively. Instead of "what should Obama do…?" or"what should Geithner do…?" about the banking crisis, we oughtalways be asking, "what should Pelosi do…?" and "what should myCongressmember do…?" If we talk differently, we will start holdingdifferent people accountable. We will, and can, demand moreimagination and leadership from our Congressional representatives.
Second, I hope that we increasingly shift power to local governments.Collective decisions about health care and education are best answeredon a local level. A government should not become too big tofulfill one of its most basic functions: representation.
I am very far away from libertarianism in other areas; I would like tosee more investment in education, more investment in health care, morecollective choices made about our collective societies. The only way I see it functioning (without nonresponsive agencies) is if we distribute all of these public goods via smaller state governments. More government, not less–but more of it local. Thelibertarian argument and the G20-protesters arguments share a common,and common-sense thread: we cannot design systems that are inherentlynon-responsive, either because of scale or by design, and then expectthem to be responsive to our collective needs and wisdom during a timeof crisis.
Zephyr TeachoutZephyr Teachout, a Nation editorial board member, is a constitutional lawyer and law professor at Fordham University and the author of Break ’Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom From Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money.