Lawrence York

On PPIP and Geithner's Latest Power Grab (Linkfest)

The Fed and Treasury seek to expand their powers that permit them to annoint the winners and losers rather than letting the free market do so. Intregal to this power grab is letting their constituent banks operate with guarantees from the taxpayer. This is not Capitalism, but a design to control it and the players. What is remarkable is that Geithner's call for more capital assumes that the Fed and Treasury would know when it was necessary. Clearly they failed miserably in the past and have an exceedingly consistent record of missing abuses until they cause crisis. Yes we need reform, but we need to separate regulation from the purse and politics. Geithner's proposal is indeed a power grab and will not fix the fatal flaw of promising safety on inherently risky practices. Banks need to banks not investment banks if they are to offer guarantees backed by the taxpayer.

Geithner's Financial Reform Is Doomed to Fail

Bravo and well stated! Banks, with the Fed and Treasury as their salesforce, want to keep the competitive advantage of placing public money at risk to make profits. It is incredulous that Congress can't or won't see this point. We either need to be a capitalistic system or not and the promise of guarantees by the taxpayer has no role.