Will The Treasury Department Get Dictatorial Powers?
"It is clear that desa Fed policy interacted with desa Wall Street incompetence. Senators! Dellow felegates! In response to this direct threat to incompetent Wall Street bankers, mesa propose, that the Senate give immediately emergency powers to the Treasury secretary"
(Adapted version of Jar Jar Bink's call for emergency powers to Palpatine in Star Wars Episode 2)
There are many troubling things with the proposed "comprehensive" bailout of incompetent Wall Street bankers. Just how troubling it will be remains to be seen until the final version is announced. I'll certainly return to the subject once the announcement has been made.
One troubling aspect of the version the Bush administration asks for (which they may or may not be granted) is that it will grant the Treasury department complete discretion to buy mortgage backed securities from anyone at any price they want without the reach of courts or really even Congress. Except for the $700 billion quantity limit, there will be no checks or limits or accountability for the actions of the Treasury department. Regardless of how much money they unnecessarily waste on Wall Street banks, whether out of incompetence or out of cronyism/corruption, there will be no possibilty for courts to intervene and no possibility of prosecuting anyone. While there will be a provision saying the Treasury department should safeguard taxpayer's interests, that provision is in practice meaningless as the Treasury department will have full discretion in interpreting what that provision means. And of course, if they really had taxpayer's interest in mind, they wouldn't have come up with this package in the first place.
The Democrats appears to be all for this power grab. The only hope to stop this comes if they insist on putting into this bill their desired various other spending plans and the Republicans insist on stopping those plans. Unfortunately, it appears more likely they in "bipartisan" spirit will agree to a compromise.
Update:: It now appears that the Democrats will in fact oppose giving the Treasury department unlimited powers, while also demanding limits on executive pay and various spending programs. So maybe I was too pessimistic. It remains to be seen however if they will really be willing to block it if Paulson insist on his version.
(Adapted version of Jar Jar Bink's call for emergency powers to Palpatine in Star Wars Episode 2)
There are many troubling things with the proposed "comprehensive" bailout of incompetent Wall Street bankers. Just how troubling it will be remains to be seen until the final version is announced. I'll certainly return to the subject once the announcement has been made.
One troubling aspect of the version the Bush administration asks for (which they may or may not be granted) is that it will grant the Treasury department complete discretion to buy mortgage backed securities from anyone at any price they want without the reach of courts or really even Congress. Except for the $700 billion quantity limit, there will be no checks or limits or accountability for the actions of the Treasury department. Regardless of how much money they unnecessarily waste on Wall Street banks, whether out of incompetence or out of cronyism/corruption, there will be no possibilty for courts to intervene and no possibility of prosecuting anyone. While there will be a provision saying the Treasury department should safeguard taxpayer's interests, that provision is in practice meaningless as the Treasury department will have full discretion in interpreting what that provision means. And of course, if they really had taxpayer's interest in mind, they wouldn't have come up with this package in the first place.
The Democrats appears to be all for this power grab. The only hope to stop this comes if they insist on putting into this bill their desired various other spending plans and the Republicans insist on stopping those plans. Unfortunately, it appears more likely they in "bipartisan" spirit will agree to a compromise.
Update:: It now appears that the Democrats will in fact oppose giving the Treasury department unlimited powers, while also demanding limits on executive pay and various spending programs. So maybe I was too pessimistic. It remains to be seen however if they will really be willing to block it if Paulson insist on his version.
posted by stefankarlsson at 5:32 PM
5 Comments:
I think it is more likely that the Congress will respond in a partisan way -- unfortunatley -- we really need a resurection of bipartisanship; a new Franklin Delano Roosvelt. And I am starting to think that it means a McCain more than a Obama. // Caroline
to much democracy leads automaticly to dictatorship
Göran, Sweden
I've heard so many calls for a new FDR over the past few weeks. Few people seem to understand that FDR was a wannabe dictator who enacted disastrous authoritarian economic policies...
Steve, USA
Disastrous economic policies? Republicans seem to forget that the banking regulations imposed by FDR kept this kind of market collapse at bay for 70 years.
Frank
Caronline,
McCain isn't bright enough to understand the problem. He's extremely impulsive and arrogant as well. McCain could well be the next Herbert Hoover.
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