Comment & Debate
“Can the Senate finance bill curb Wall Street?”. Kansas City Star. May 2010.: “We have a bill that essentially says, ‘Trust us, we’ll sort this one out.’ That is, trust the infinite wisdom of Congress and the regulatory agencies to steer us through the inevitable next crisis.”
“Big Brother loves ‘financial reform'” Washington Times Editorial. April 30th, 2010: “The legislation, sponsored by Senate banking committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, would create the innocuously named Office of Financial Research as a central repository for transaction-related records held by financial companies. According to proponents, ‘decision-makers’ like Mr. Geithner need up-to-the-minute information to act in order to prevent what they refer to as another Wall Street meltdown. The proposed agency would also provide statistical analysis and research, purportedly to monitor systemic risk to the financial system.
The idea raises a number of red flags, not least of which is the plan’s fundamentally flawed premise that a central committee of unelected bureaucrats would be qualified to judge what’s right and what’s wrong for the economy. Our economic woes of the past three years would not have been solved had Treasury officials been armed with crisper charts and more accurate PowerPoint slides.”