File this under “The liberal-left ruining the free-market, capitalist economy, and then blaming the capitalist system and Republicans and “deregulation” for the mess they themselves created through their meddling in the free-market system and their incessant efforts at social engineering.” Or just “Get real”.
From the Wall Street Journal today:
A cautionary tale about financial rules that failed.
As we’ve documented the myriad ways that Washington encouraged the housing bubble, the media and Democrats continue to search for evidence to blame it all on “deregulation.”
One alleged perpetrator, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, was released without charges after the record revealed that Joe Biden voted for it and Bill Clinton signed it. More to the point, investment banks were already free, prior to the 1999 law, to invest in the same assets that have wreaked such havoc today.
Barack Obama nonetheless attacks President Bush’s policies to “strip away regulation,” without mentioning a single example. In an attempt to fill out Mr. Obama’s talking points, the press corps has now fingered a 2004 change in SEC net capital rules. In fact, then-SEC Chairman William Donaldson’s reform was anything but deregulation. A regulatory failure, yes, and a cautionary tale for those who think new regulation will solve everything.
The 2004 change won unanimous approval from SEC commissioners and Democrat Annette Nazareth, who ran the market regulation division at the time. Rather than deregulation, it was a breathtaking regulatory leap for an agency that had traditionally focused on protecting individual investors…
I categorized this under my site’s category, which I like to think is the blogosphere’s longest category name, “The liberal-left ruining the free-market, capitalist economy”.
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PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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