The Stupidity of Deregulation

The bill that has just been passed in the House is called, "HR 4173". It is designed (in theory anyway) to protect honest investors from the type of predators that have been openly and legally running rampant on Wall Street for thirty years now.

Don't hold your breath waiting for whole chapters to be written about HR 4173 in the history books. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 it ain't. This proposed new law is so riddled with loopholes it might as well be rendered next-to-useless. It was passed 223 to 202 - with not one Republican legislator voting in favor of it. Not one. Even a law as watered down as this one is unacceptable to these bastards and bitches. That fact alone illustrates more than any other the moral bankruptcy of that hideous party.

Well, HR 4173 is a start - I GUESS. What the American people are in dire need of at this point in time is a comprehensive history lesson. At the moment the Republicans within Congress and without (and more-than-a-few Democrats) are in the process of trying to sell us on the idea that the re-regulatory direction in which the Left wishes to take us will ultimately be a bad thing for the economy - that it will cost jobs, punish honest brokers, strangle America's entrepreneurial spirit, force our daughters to become lesbians, blah, blah, blah....

The regulations put into place in the nineteen thirties by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his "Brain Trust" guided the marketplace for nearly fifty years. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the late nineteenth century, unregulated, out-of-control capitalism was known to periodically wreck havoc on the American economy. Every decade would experience at least one serious meltdown of the Stock Market and more than a few financial depressions. In that era it was widely accepted that in a robust and healthy economy these periodic calamities were inevitable and unavoidable.

Along came FDR. As far as anyone could tell there did not seem to be a hell of a lot of substance to the guy. The journalist Walter Lippman described him as a man in possession of a first class temperament and a second class intellect. His distant cousin, Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Teddy's daughter) publicly dismissed him as a "feather duster". The nation and the world would learn in due course, however, that there was more to this pampered squire of Dutchess County than met the skeptical eye.

Although it has become almost a cliche it is undeniable: Roosevelt saved capitalism by tempering its excesses. While it was not perfectly flawless, the rules put into place by by the New Dealers worked pretty well for almost fifty years - until the nineteen-eighties, that is. That was when the American voters (for reasons I still can't figure out) overwhelmingly decided that sending Ronald Reagan to the White House would be a really neat idea. Reagan was a feeble-minded, failed "B" movie actor at the dawn of senility who should have been in an assisted living program somewhere, being spoon-fed oatmeal. Instead, January 20, 1981 saw him taking the oath of office as the fortieth president of the United States. Life is kind of funny that way, ya know?

Here's a promise, America: One day very soon you will wake up and realize what a complete fool Reagan was.

After eight years of Reagan and four years of King George I, A Democratic president came to town who might have at least attempted to put an end to the orgy of deregulation that was slowly destroying the U.S. economy. Instead he merely aided and abetted it. The main reason I left the Democratic party nearly twelve years ago? Two words: BILL CLINTON.

It is a lesson that we have learned so many times throughout our history it's embarrassing to realize that we had to learn it yet again: the Progressive creates, the Plutocrat destroys; The Liberals invest in society while the Conservatives invest in themselves. The result whenever the right wing has been able to seize all three branches of our government has always been the same - a social and economic shit storm. This is the fourth time in our history we've learned that lesson. How many more times will we have to make the same mistake? We've made it so many times it's starting to get boring. Seriously.

Here is a fact of life that is so Civics 101, it amazes me that Republican legislators have never had the wit to figure it out. You're either going to have one of two things:

You will have a functioning, healthy and thriving society where our children get the best education possible; where jobs are plentiful and crime rates are low; where the infrastructure is sound and running at full capacity....

....or you will have a situation where the wealthy are taxed at the lowest rate imaginable. You cannot - you will not - have both. If you don't believe me, the next time you decide to take a vacation, spend it in Texas or Mississippi. Send me a post card.

Last night on 60 Minutes, President Obama expressed frustration that Wall Street still doesn't "get it". Of course they don't get it! The taxpayer-funded bailout was handed over to them unconditionally - minus regulation, if you will. Expecting them to do the right thing was beyond naive - it was insane. They've taken all that money and they've decided to hoard it, not pump it back into the economy as they were supposed to. These people have a single motivation: to make as much money as possible. They don't give a hoot in hell about right or wrong. They don't consider what is good for Main Street. All they think about is profit. People this amoral need guidelines - they need rules and regulations - otherwise America's economic reality will mirror the situation as it existed prior to 1933 (and since 1981): economic anarchy.

You say you want a revolution....

It's coming, baby, like it or not. Lately I've noticed a peculiar thing: people who describe themselves as Conservative finding common ground with people who describe themselves as Liberal. This can't be a very nice thing for American politicians to contemplate. When regular people like us can figure out what is really behind their Three Card Monty scheme, it's only a matter of time before all the cards come tumbling down.

You tell me it's the institution....

HR 4173 is merely a baby step in the right direction. For three long decades these assholes were permitted - by law - to run roughshod over our economy, looting our national treasure in the process. As Sam Cooke once sang, "a change is gonna come". So much more needs to be done. So many old laws need to be re-instituted. Imagine cleaning up a blood bath with a Kleenex. That is essentially what HR 4173 amounts to. We have a long road ahead of us.

Well, you know, we all wanna change the world.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

FOR THE RECORD:

Twenty-seven Democrats voted against HR 4173. That faint rumbling you hear in the distance is the sound of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt doing somersaults in their graves.

The photo at the top of the page is of FDR and his cabinet on their first full day in office, March 5, 1933.

AFTERTHOUGHT:

I've just discovered a very thought provoking site called The Peace Tree. It says at the top of the page:

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."

Beautiful! Here's a link:

http://www.thepeacetree2.blogspot.com/

Cheerio!