President Obama is demanding dangerous, sweeping new powers to
seize financial services companies.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the proposal
expected to be unveiled tomorrow will be "the most significant
new regulation of the financial industry since the Great
Depression, including a new watchdog agency to look out for
consumers' interests."
The plan would give the government "new powers to seize
key companies -- such as insurance giant American International
Group Inc. -- whose failure jeopardizes the financial
system." The news report notes that "[c]urrently, the
government's authority to seize companies is mostly limited to
banks."
Isn't this too cute by half? The left plunges the country
into financial crisis through a number of measures such as the
Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and by pushing Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac and others to lend to the uncreditworthy, and
now offers to save the country through more Big Government
regulations.
President Obama, by the way,
personally contributed to the increasingly hostile
environment for banks when he represented the plaintiffs in the
1995 class action lawsuit Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank.
The suit demanded that the bank grant mortgages to an equal
percentage of minority and non-minority mortgage applicants.
Under pressure, the bank settled the case three years later after
agreeing to beef up its lending to unqualified applicants.
