Rebuilding the Deck of Cards ~ Croney Capitalism at it's finest

Well, if you think that the GOP has been belligerent, foaming at the mouth, over the top bat shit crazy in the last year, just wait until we get to Financial Reform.
Like you had to guess for one second who's side the GOP is on. Certainly not yours.

Not that the Obama administration has done a damn thing to regulate this sector, nor does the current Dodd bill go nearly far enough. It absolutely baffles me that it's been a year and a half since the Economic Collapse and nothing has been done.

All we have done is rebuild the deck of cards. The banks are back to their shady, risky derrivites games - betting the house with tax payer money - but who cares the Fed can always just print them more money if they blow it up again.

Republicans (and a few Democrats) have spent year after year tearing down Financial Regulation - decades of consumer protection largely enacted after the first Financial Disaster. Roosevelt's Reform's enacted after the Great Depression protected this country from major disaster for generations - and never failed until they were stripped down. Most importantly being the Glass-Steagall Act which prevents banks from making billions from the dealing desk with 300/1 leverage.

We know what happened when we stripped these protections, and we know that the banks are up to the same behavior, and doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. The fact that nothing is being done, and that ANYBODY would stand in the way of reform is delusional, and I certainly don't understand how this could possibly be a partisan issue.

Crony Capitalism = Privatized profits & socialized losses.

The banks are still too big to fail. They still are not freeing up credit to small business. They may be making money now, but again this is largely due to risky bets that will ultimately cause another calamity, and this time way may not have the resources to get us out of this.

Even scarier now, due to the Supreme Court ruling - the Financial Lobby can spend untold billions lobbying congress to essentially write their own legislation, or to elect candidates of their chosing. Republians were quick to capitalize on this as Eric Cantor & John Boehmer met with the banking heads devising a strategy to kill Financial Regulation. What's next - getting rid of the USDA? Since when is regulation a four letter word? Since when does regulation = socialism?

Did Madoff destroy 65 billion dollars worth of wealth because there was too much regulation? Or simply not enough. Not enough regulation, and not enough staff that actually understands financials.

Somebody explain to me that in 2009 - the year of the Great Recession, when trillions of dollars of wealth was eliminated, millions lost their jobs and their homes, we ADDED more millionaires in the US. The rich got richer and the poor got a lot poorer. Was that because of too much regulation?

The Right-Wingers in Europe (Merkel, Sarkozy) are fuming mad at us for allowing this to happen in the first place, and cannot fathom the inaction that is taking place right now. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. This is a no-brainer. The longer we pander to the wealthy, and the powerful corporations, the more and more we become Mexico - a wealthy powerful elite and a poverty-stricken super-majority.

I cannot wait to hear this debate get started. I have no idea how the GOP can look at Americans straight in the face and tell us why we don't need Financial Reform. But, the Republicans do a great job getting poor people to vote against their interests, just look at Health Care.

More to come soon!