On Systematizing Too Big To Fail

Jonah Goldberg channels William F. Buckley, Jr. to remind us that it is human nature to try to game the system, even the capitalist system:

Washington’s solution to Wall Street’s problems is to get Washington deeply, deeply involved in Wall Street. So involved that the savvier capitalists will recognize — once again — that the safest bets are not to be found in the vicissitudes of a fickle marketplace, but in gaming the system run from Washington. The “reform” coming down the pike will put bureaucrats in charge of investors. If bureaucrats were better than investors, they wouldn’t be bureaucrats. The government will decide which firms are worthy — “systemically important” — and which are not. Those that are will use their official “importance” to game the system. Instead of eradicating “too big to fail,” we will systematize it.

Read the whole thing here.

Obama's Gangster Government To Become Law In Dodd Bill

In "Gangster Government Becomes a Long-Running Series," Michael Barone writes:

Almost a year ago, in a Washington Examiner column on the Chrysler bailout, I reflected on the Obama administration's decision to force bondholders to accept 33 cents on the dollar on secured debts while giving United Auto Worker retirees 50 cents on the dollar on unsecured debts.

This was a clear violation of the ordinary bankruptcy rule that secured creditors are fully paid off before unsecured creditors get anything. The politically connected UAW folk got preference over politically unconnected bondholders. "We have just seen an episode of Gangster Government," I wrote. "It is likely to be a continuing series." ...

The Dodd bill['s] ... provisions promise to give us one episode of Gangster Government after another.

At the top of the list is the $50 billion fund that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp could use to pay off creditors of firms identified as systemically risky -- i.e., "too big to fail."

"The Dodd bill," writes Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, "has unlimited executive bailout authority. That's something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn't dare ask for."

Be sure to read the rest here.

Bailouts Remain The Problem, Not The Solution

Nicole Gelinas for Investors.com explains why the Dodd bill is a very unfunny joke:

The idea that the financial industry can pre-fund its next arbitrary bailout with $50 billion is a pleasant fiction. How much would an "orderly liquidation fund" have needed to stem investor panic starting in 2008? Try $20 trillion.

You can read the rest here.

"In America Nobody Loves A Smart-Ass"

Having good reason to have assholes on his mind these days, P. J. O'Rourke reminds us that "the Mayflower was full of C students," and that "The C student starts a restaurant. The A student writes restaurant reviews."

Read the whole thing, here.

Limited Government Presupposes Social Conservatism

Phyllis Schlafly for Investors.com explains how limited government can't exist without social conservatism:

If limited-government conservatives are dreaming of taking back America for fiscal sanity in the November elections, they should study how the unprecedented decline in marriage and the increase in illegitimacy are the major causes of our bloated government and gigantic welfare spending.

In 2008, 40.6% of children born in the U.S. were born outside of marriage; that's 1,720,000 children. This is not, as the media try to tell us, a teenage problem. Only 7% of those illegitimate babies were born to girls under age 18, and over three-fourths were born to women over 20. The problem is the collapse of marriage as the social institution responsible for the costs of child care.

The fiscal conservative faction of the Republican Party should also study why Republicans won their big congressional majority in 1994 and what has happened since. The Democratic Party's welfare boondoggle was a major reason for the GOP victory.

Go here to read the full argument.

Failed Broadway Bank Linked To Giorango, Rezko, Giannoulias And Obama

John McCormick for Bloomberg.com is reporting some interesting details about Broadway Bank of Chicago, IL, which failed yesterday:

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic candidate seeking the seat once held by President Barack Obama in Illinois, vowed to press on with his campaign after regulators seized the bank his family owns. ...

Broadway Bank had been operating since January under terms of a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. because of commercial real-estate loan losses. ...

Some Broadway Bank loans have drawn notice, including those made to Michael Giorango, a convicted bookmaker and prostitution-ring promoter. The bank also made loans to convicted Illinois influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko and a family accused of having connections to organized crime. ...

In March, a Chicago restaurateur who gave more than $100,000 to Giannoulias -- and $4,600 to Obama -- was charged with defrauding banks by writing $1.8 million in bad checks.

Read the complete story here.

70% Support Sheriff Joe's Revenge

As detailed by RasmussenReports.com:

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 70% of likely voters in Arizona approve of the legislation, while just 23% oppose it. . . .

The new law puts into state statute some of the policies that have long been practiced by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But his aggressive enforcement of federal laws against illegal immigration have triggered a Justice Department probe and moves by the Obama administration to reduce his ability to enforce federal immigration laws.

Read the full story here.

"Obama Is Against Law Enforcement, Our Citizens And The Rule Of Law"

The Washington Post is reporting "Ariz. governor signs immigration enforcement bill":

The legislation, sent to the Republican governor by the GOP-led Legislature, makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It also requires local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants; allows lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws; and makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them. . . .

The bill's Republican sponsor, state Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, said Obama and other critics of the bill were "against law enforcement, our citizens and the rule of law."

Read the full story, here.

On The Supreme Court

"The Supremes aren't."

-- Imam John

On Intimacy

"If you talk about intimacy in public, it's not intimacy anymore."

-- Imam John

Papers Please

Politico is reporting that birth certificate legislation has now been sponsored in the U.S. House of Representatives:

The House sponsor of legislation that would require presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate is praising a similar Arizona measure, which is drawing condemnation from one of George W. Bush’s former White House press secretaries [Dana Perino].

Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), sponsor of the House bill, which has attracted 11 co-sponsors, said an Arizona House-passed measure would help clarify murky guidelines about presidential eligibility.

The measure, adopted 31-22 earlier this week as part of a separate bill, would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state’s ballot when he runs for re-election. It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.

Read more here.

"I'm A Democrat But I'm Not A Communist"

Peter Ferrara of The American Spectator puts his finger on the Democrats' growing political problem:

Start with the brutal fact that this is not your father's Democrat party. Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and others have thoroughly documented Obama's radical left roots, from his openly communist father, to his Marxist mother, to the Communist Party's Franklin Marshall Davis who mentored Obama through adolescence, while his parents were off pursuing the cause around the world. Obama's own books disclose that he was drawn to radical left Marxist professors in college and law school. And all of this was before Obama the adult hooked up with 1960s Weatherman bomb thrower Bill Ay[er]s, the anti-American preacher Jeremiah Wright, and the far left radical front group ACORN. This is all well-established public information, as hard as that should be to believe.

As Beck has so rightly asked, if Obama has grown up and changed from this radical foundation, when exactly did that happen? There is nothing in the public record to support such a change. ...

In the Democrat party of the past, Southern conservatives were the longest serving members of Congress, heading all the Committees as a result, where they sharply restrained the Left in the '60s and '70s. But today the former Southern conservative Democrats have mostly been replaced by Republicans, and it is the northern urban ultraliberals who are the longest serving, and now head all the committees.

This ugly and dangerous reality is what moved one recent talk radio caller to proclaim, "I'm a Democrat, but I'm not a Communist." The left-wing extremism of the currently ruling Democrat party is one huge dark cloud on the horizon indicating the coming political tsunami. Treating grassroots voters who question that left-wing extremism with disdain and name-calling is only further gathering the storm.

Read the rest here.

It All Depends On What The Meaning Of "They" Is

The Boston Herald editorial staff pointed out yesterday how Bill Clinton's recent attempt to vilify the whole Tea Party Movement depended, as usual, on the slick use of a single term, "they."

By that sleight of hand, Clinton hoped to convey the notion of equivalency between Timothy McVeigh and the Tea Parties, presupposing that a whole movement existed behind McVeigh when in reality he had "one accomplice and two other individuals who knew of his plans."

The Tea Party Movement, by contrast, is enormous, is Everyman, and must be one hell of a threat if the inventor of the politics of personal destruction at Waco has to be trotted out to join the battle.

We'll see you on the battlefield, in November, creep.

The opinion was posted here.

Bill Clinton's War Crimes

A fine one to warn us about other people's character and motives. He was lucky he was impeached only for perjury, and ended up losing his law license for five years, when he should have been convicted of a crime against humanity.

Saddam Hussein gassed Kurds.

Bill Clinton gassed American kids.

In case you forgot.

Refresh your memory here. And here.

Financial Reform: Of Torches And Pitchforks

Edward Harrison of creditwritedowns.com weighs in on the Goldman case, but can't quite bring himself to commit to the view that this is all just for show and will do nothing but continue the lie that is America and the farce of extend and pretend in particular which government has modeled for decades, and the consumer, business and the banking system have dutifully imitated in their turn. Abandon hope all ye who enter here: Everything Obama says comes with an expiration date. The following excerpts come from here:As I left for the conference, I chatted with a friend who is far from the financial sector. Her take puts this debate into perspective. The issues are pretty easy to understand:We have had an economic crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Great Depression. People are still losing their jobs and homes as a direct result of the boom and bust caused by the financial sector. Yet, we have bailed the banks out with taxpayer money and the bankers act like they never needed the bailout, didn’t cause the crisis or some other ridiculous argument of that ilk. In fact, they are rewarding themselves with huge bonuses while everyone else is still in a world of hurt.Forget about whether these arguments make any sense. They don’t. The only thing ordinary Americans need to know is that these people are paying themselves obscene amounts of money while everyone else is suffering despite the fact that we bailed them out of the crisis they caused. That’s the pitchfork thesis in a nutshell.  All of the other stuff is a sideshow. Johnson confirmed that this is exactly what people have been telling him in his book signings all across America. To my mind, this is what the Goldman fraud case is all about. Do you think the political payoff would be as high for going after JPMorgan Chase? Goldman is the vampire squid in mainstream America’s eyes and the Feds know this. That is why they have been targeted.

A Nation Of Laws . . . A Refuge Of Liberty

Sarah Palin In The News

Back in January I wrote that "In my department, this move removes Sarah Palin from my list of serious candidates for president in 2012. It wouldn't matter what news organization she joined, either. One does not pursue statesmanship by lowering oneself in this way. And perhaps that's what she is trying to tell everyone: that she's packing it in."

Someone who knows her well, Fred Malek, recently came to a similar conclusion about Palin here.

h/t Allahpundit

A Simple Illustration Of Why Healthcare Is Not A Right

Because, quite simply, it's a contract. And if the provider doesn't agree to make a contract with you, no healthcare is provided. As in this case of yet another doctor who puts up a warning notice to his patients:

“If you voted for Obamacare, be aware these doors will close before it goes into effect.” The note is signed Joseph M. Scherzer M.D. and includes the following addendum: “****Unless Congress or the Courts repeal the BILL.”

People who insist that healthcare is a right would enslave another human being to make him or her provide it. If they really mean it then they ought to take intellectually promising children away from their mothers and fathers at an early age and raise and educate them to this end, just as Plato discussed long ago.

Funny how it's the Democrat Party which is so enthusiastic for a new form of slavery. Didn't they have something to do with it the last time? That went well.

The Daily Caller has the story and a picture here.

I Said, "Hey Bartender!"

"Last year alone, the State Department sent taxpayers tabs totaling nearly $300,000 for alcoholic beverages — about twice as much compared to the previous year, according to an analysis of spending records by The Washington Times."

Read all about it, here.

Asset Value Lies Are S.O.P. In Banking

Karl Denninger has a new post here reflecting on a recent entry at Institutional Risk Analytics on "Events of Default" which shines the light on approximately $500 billion in private collateralized debt obligations which continue to be carried by the banks at par value but which are in fact nearly worthless:

It's called legalized accounting fraud, and I've been hollering about it for three years. As the loss severities have continued to climb and the impact accelerate[s] into other areas of securitized debt, the so-called "regulators" have scrambled to find new corners of the carpet to allow the banksters to hide the truth under.

A culture built on lies cannot endure.