I fear that we will continue to see the abuse of financial systems when the Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary, said the following. “…So again we’re coming together to work for an expeditious solution which is aimed right at the heart of this problem which is ill-liquid assets on financial institutions balance sheets. Thank you.” What?? That was a misleading statement. There was no mention of the root cause of this situation which was home loans to the unqualified. There was no mention of regulations to prevent a recurrence of this current meltdown.
BusinessWeek has an excellent article on the subject of regulation of many aspects of our economy. Is It the Dawn of the Reregulation Era? This article correctly points out the folly of an unregulated economy. Congresses abdication of its power to regulate commerce is the result of the influence of big business and the wealthy at the expense of middle class America. The current financial meltdown is the result of greed. Reasonable regulation is the answer. The difficulty is defining “reasonable.” The meeting of Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke and leaders of both political parties proves that reason can prevail.
This could be the first 3 a.m. phone call for both John McCain and Barack Obama. What they tell us they would do if this situation occurred during their presidency might be the guide for selecting the next president. Barack Obama’s economic plan that I posted on September 18 gives us insight into his ideas. However, his response to the current situation might be more telling. He can’t vote “present” and neither he nor John McCain can avoid voting for or against the legislation that will probably be presented to Congress in the next few weeks.
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