An attempted coup over the weekend by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may or may not have been thwarted, so stay tuned, this could get interesting. 'King Henry' has a nice ring, doesn't it? Maybe coup isn't quite right - how about leveraged buyout? Basically he asked for all the money AND all the authority over how to use it, no questions asked, and no restrictions of his power.
Paulson reportedly got down on his knees to plead with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her support in his attempt to take complete control of the economy in his well-connected hands. Maybe he thought that's all a lady really wants - to have a big strong man kneel at her feet. I don't think she fell for it, but no doubt there's something in it for her, too. Such a sweet deal for Hank and his pals at Goldman Sachs could also be a sweet deal for Nancy if she plays ball.
Meanwhile John Boehner and his Caucus of Merry Men interrupted the love-fest for fear that their arch-enemies across the aisle might steal their thunder before the Great Suspender could arrive in the nick of time to save us all from certain calamity. What a great photo op that would have been. I'm picturing Mighty Mouse in those wonderful 1950s cartoons, belting out in his tenor voice, "Here I come to save the day!"
But the lamest duck president in history wasn't in a mood to put up with delays because, in his eloquent words, if Congress doesn't pass the package, "This sucker's goin' down!" Again I can only use my vivid imagination, but I'm picturing a polite pause in the cabinet room, followed by everybody else getting back to the business of negotiating a compromise with Paulson. For once, Calvin Coolidge is right: the business of America is business, and it looks as if it might come to pass that there is a very big merger in the works that all but obliterates the fake line between public policy and private enterprise.
Despite the compromises, the basic outline of the rescue package remains the same as it would "effectively nationalize an array of mortgages and securities backed by them," the Wall Street Journal summarizes. (from Slate)
OMG, did the WSJ just use a bad word? The N word? Just wait, tomorrow they might even use the S word. But it's okay, it's not like some band of working-class hooligans is setting up a socialist state. Rest easy, Amerika, it's only a band of ruling-class oligarchs, as usual, in fact much like our friendly enemies in Russia, where authoritarian communist oligarchy morphed into authoritarian capitalist oligarchy almost overnight.
Here in this blessed land, we do things a little differently. We have a compliant legislative branch to rubber-stamp the takeover of finance by government, or is it the takeover of government by finance - whatever.
Elsewhere, Ben Stein has a few thoughts on who merits bailing and who doesn't. Hint: you and I don't. Unless, of course you happen to be a personal friend of the Treasury Secretary, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Chase, or Bank of America.
When I signed an online petition to ask Congress to make certain stipulations part of the bail-out, I received this response (slightly edited) from my senator:
Dear Sven,
Thank you for expressing your concerns with the problems in the financial sector and proposals to address them.
A lot of Swingstaters, including me, are angry at the thought of bailing out people who made a lot of money making bad business decisions that created problems in neighborhoods across Swingstate. I agree that we need to avoid rewarding excessive risk taking. These institutions made unwise decisions, and taxpayers should not be expected to simply cover their losses.
Treasury Secretary Paulson this weekend sent a proposal to Congress that would give him almost unfettered authority to spend $700 billion purchasing troubled assets from financial institutions. On Tuesday, my colleagues on the Banking Committee and I held a hearing at which Secretary Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and others testified.
They made a strong case for the need to act quickly to prevent further damage to our economy. The turmoil in the credit markets has the potential to do great damage to a lot of innocent bystanders. I am afraid that if we do not act, the economic instability could affect thousands of American jobs and the savings of countless middle class families.
But Secretary Paulson’s proposal is not the right answer. No Secretary should be given a $700 billion blank check. Taxpayers must be given an opportunity to recover their money, and assurances their tax dollars will not fund lavish pay and golden parachutes. We need strong rules to guard against abuse, and to ensure all types of institutions and regions are helped.
In the days ahead, we need to focus on containing the damage to middle class families and local businesses as much as possible. In the months ahead, we need to take a hard look at how financial markets are regulated so we never find ourselves in this situation again.
Thank you again for contacting me. I will certainly keep your views in mind as the Senate debates ways to help restore strength to our economy.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown
Of course, he uses a number of important buzz words when talking to the folks back home - words like taxpayers, jobs, middle class with which elected officials love to pepper their communications with constituents. But his thinking is in line with mine, and it's good to know someone out there is actually representing me. We shall see how much good it does, and in the meantime how much damage is done.
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