September 12, 2009 – 7:40 pm
There is a Chinese proverb that I’ve been known to quote when people tell me I am too blunt in stating my opinions: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.”
This week U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, with approval from the President, demanded broad new federal government powers to regulate and take control of all financial institutions other than banks. What Geithner calls “resolution authority” would allow him to take over non-bank financial institutions that he decides “pose a systemic risk” until government decides the problems are resolved.
Historic Power Grab
If Congress approves such a measure, it would represent one of the biggest expansions of federal regulatory power in history. Major questions remain about how the authority would actually work, but you can be sure the politicians would use such enormous political and economic power to favor their friends — and destroy their enemies.
As a precedent, Geithner noted that the government has such authority for banks; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has power to step in to clean up a bank’s books and alter business practices when a bank is near failure. There is no such federal authority for non-bank entities that in recent years have become bigger players in the financial system.
Apparently Geithner never has heard of the federal bankruptcy courts. For centuries these impartial judges have administered failed companies of all kinds, as well as personal financial failures. Why turn over such extraordinary judicial powers to an appointed cabinet secretary who could not even figure out to pay his own taxes?
“Where from the government and we’re here to help you!”
Of course the government has shown what stellar mangers of financial institutions it can be in recent months, as its bailout billions have been squandered on AIG bonuses, yes — but also on billions for foreign banks insured by AIG. The solution for this government failure is still more government power, according to President Obama.
So let’s call what the President is proposing by its right name — in fact you can pick a name — fascism, socialism or communism. AsI have commented before, Obama’s radical polices partake of all of these isms — and this deadly combination is alien in American history and, hopefully, to the views of most Americans today.
Five Year Plan Without Bloodshed
I got to thinking about how to describe what is happening in America under Obama when I saw TV Fox News commentator, Judge Andrew Napolitano,(left) refer to Obama’s latest proposal “a Soviet Five Year Plan without the bloodshed.”
Napolitano is the author of a book I highly recommend, Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws (Nelson Books). The judge gave an excellent short lecture on Obama’s constitutional violations of the freedom to contract. (You can view it here, and it’s worth watching).
Communism
Karl Marx, the principal theoretical founder of communism, believed that state control of production, banks, and private business, an initial process he called socialism, was a necessary first step to eventual communism.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, principal leader of the 1917 October Revolution and the first head of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, understood this to mean that the working class must take over the state and the state would control the economy. He tried this for a couple of years after the Revolution and his economics led to the collapse of the Russian economy and mass starvation. Lenin’s New Economic Policy, also known as the NEP, was an acknowledgment of his failures.
It was not until 1927 that Russian production reached even the levels before the First World War. It was then that dictator Josef Stalin (below) decided that he would use his absolute control over the country to increase production.
The Five Year Plan
The Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the late U.S.S.R. were a series of nationwide, centralized plans aimed at rapid economic growth and, for the most part, they failed.
Not unlike the current AIG bonus crowd, under Communism’s state control those that failed to reach the required targets were publicity criticized and humiliated. Workers could not cope with this pressure and absenteeism increased. This led to even more repressive measures. Records were kept of workers’ lateness, absenteeism and bad workmanship. If the worker’s record was poor, he was accused of trying to sabotage the Five Year Plan and if found guilty, could be shot or sent to work as forced labor in the Siberian gulag.
Is that what is needed for AIG, the banks and Wall Street in general?
Where Is America Headed?
Let’s face it folks, no national economy can sustain Obama’s proposed trillion dollar deficits, the level of new borrowing required, while spending ever more and increasing taxes for nationalize health care, nationalized education, nationalized banks and his associated bailouts.
History shows that creating dependence on government is how politicians such as Barack Obama take power for themselves. The more people come to depend upon government handouts and bailouts, the greater need the people will have for politicians to keep the money flowing.
This is more than just vote buying. It is a type of people buying reminiscent of the slave trade. Government will be the new master and the once free citizens of America are rapidly becoming its slaves.
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