Gregg Withdrawal, Patriotism and the Census

Obama has tried to form a team of rivals to deal with the national economic emergency, but the Republican rivals don't want any part of it. Until recently my main complaint has been about John McCain, who has been a particularly ungracious loser, fighting Obama tooth and nail. I have written this off to McCain's stupidity. He obviously doesn't understand economics, something he demonstrated when he left his campaign to devote all of his efforts to working on the first bailout bill. He was a disaster. He clearly doesn't understand the enormity of the problem, despite the fact that the most recent intelligence briefing listed the world economy as the greatest threat to the U.S., greater even than terrorism. You would think that McCain as an old military man would pay attention to intelligence warnings, but apparently if they contain numbers, he can't handle it.

Now Judd Gregg has come along to supplant McCain as the leading anti-American Republican. He decided that he can't work with Obama, despite the fact that America faces its worst economic plight in three or four generations. It looks like a patriotic American would want to do what he can to rescue America from its trials and tribulations, but not Gregg. He just wants to stick his finger in Obama's eye and make it more difficult for Obama to try to save America.

Interestingly, one of Gregg's main complaints was about the census. Apparently Republicans hate the census and see it as politically motivated. Joe Scarborough pointed out this morning that the 2000 census changed Georgia's congressional delegation from being predominately white Republican to predominately black Democratic.

So, apparently the census is just a political sham unrelated to the truth about the American population. Gregg and Scarborough would argue that when the census taker or the census form arrives at your house, lie! They argue that the census is a totally dishonest, politically motivated sham. It's another example of how Republicans hate America and discredit its institutions. Republicans don't want no stinking census, just like they didn't want no stinking regulation of the financial industry. As Ronald Reagan, their saint, said, government is the problem, not the solution. If American shot itself in the head, the Republicans think it would be much better off. Gregg didn't shoot America in the head, but he did stick his finger in her eye, and John McCain loves him for it.

More seriously, Gregg probably dropped out at least partly because of pressure from his Republican colleagues, like McCain, McConnell, Graham, Shelby and various other mentally challenged Senators, who are more concerned about partisan politics than about saving America. They are counting on the fact that their fat-cat supporters have enough gold stashed away in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Luxembourg, or some other foreign haven to take care of them when the U.S. craters as a result of their obstructionism.

Obama Recognizes Vietnam Vets

Obama won me over, although I was already a supporter, when he mentioned Khe Sahn in the same breath with Concord, Gettysburg and Normandy in his inaugural address. Typically, Americans look down on Vietnam veterans, probably because most Americans, like George Bush and Bill Clinton, did not go. There are probably very few Vietnam vets on Wall Street. So, to mention a Vietnam battle in a positive context along with other famous battles is another ground breaking step by Obama. Thank you.

My impression is that he is much more concerned about our military and veterans than Bush was, although Bush was always very public about praising them. If he had really cared about them he would have done more to increase the size of the Army and Marines, would have shortened their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and would have increased their time at home between tours. Plus he would have done more to make sure they had the best equipment. Instead of raising taxes to provide better equipment, he and Rumsfeld just went to war with what they had. They didn't try to improve the forces. I think Obama takes his job as commander-in-chief seriously and will do more for the troops, as well as for veterans. Appointing Shinseki as VA Secretary is a good first step. Shinseki may not know much about medicine, but he cares about his troops. Thank you.

Take Over the Banks

I like the proposal for a central bank given in the NYT's Anonymous Banker's proposal. First of all, the analogy to a used car dealer is one I thought of myself. We would all think bankers were stupid if they bought cars that didn't run; instead they bought obscure securities that didn't have the value the bankers paid for them, which somehow seems less stupid, although it's probably more stupid because bankers are supposed to be experts on securities, but not on cars. The idea of buying "toxic assets" is good for taxpayers only if the government pays what they are worth, which won't help the banks. Bankers are screaming to get rid of the "mark to market" rule, i.e., the rule that makes them carry on their books only the actual value of their assets. They are saying that the current market value is too low. It's like students complaining about grades. If you're failing, you don't want grades; if you're doing well, you don't mind grades; you might even want them, so that other people, e.g., your parents, will know how well you are doing. The bankers are like failing students.

I hadn't really thought about shareholder value, but the idea of preserving shareholder rights, but keeping them on ice until the bank comes out of the "central bank" seems like a good one. I can see lots of bookkeeping problems, however, if the stock is on hold for 10 years. People will die, get divorced, etc., and figuring out who gets what when the bank re-emerges will be tough.

Since I proposed it earlier, I especially like the idea of limiting the size of the banks when they re-emerge and renewing Glass-Steagall, or something like it to prevent the banks from become too big to fail again. The government could create three, four or five roughly equivalent regions and then limit any bank to just one region.

Break Up the Banks

In this huge Op-Ed in last Sunday's NYT about the financial crisis, I thought there was only one really good idea: Break up the banks that are too big to fail, so that next time they can fail without destroying the US financial system. We should probably allow interstate banking, but put some kind of cap on the size of banks.