Today, the House Financial Services Committee (who should be busy with more important things) passed the "Too Big To Fail" amendment. Also known as the Kanjorski amendment, named for the Pennsylvania Congressman who authored it.
This awesome amendment (sarcasm) gives Congress the power to decide what constitutes "too big to fail"--decide what companies are "too big to fail"-- the power to take over those companies and dismantle them as they see fit.
A summary from the Committee press release:
Objective Standards. Size is by no means the only factor to determine if a financial company is "too big to fail." The recent financial crisis has shown that many other factors can also cause a company to become a systemic risk. Rather, the amendment considers a variety of objective standards to determine if financial firms pose a threat to our financial stability, including the scope, scale, exposure, leverage, interconnectedness of financial activities, as well as size of the financial company. The Kanjorski amendment does not cap the size of financial institutions.
Mitigatory Actions. If a financial company is deemed systemically risky, the Kanjorski amendment provides responsible preventative actions to protect our financial system and curtail those risks. These include modifying existing prudential standards, imposing conditions on or terminating activities, limiting mergers and acquisitions, and in the most extreme cases, breaking up the company.
Protects American Competitiveness. We have learned from this financial crisis that we are all connected. The Kanjorski amendment addresses the concern that our regulatory system works in conjunction with those around the globe. Currently, the European Union is considering similar action, and harmonized regulations would benefit both economies.
Anyone else see the problems that may arise from granting the wankstas (sic) in Congress this much control over enterprise?
There is nothing conservative about the war in Afghanistan. The Center for Defense Information said a few months ago that we had spent over $400 billion on the war and war-related costs there. Now, the Pentagon says it will cost about $1 billion for each 1,000 additional troops we send to Afghanistan. One Republican Member from California told me recently that we could buy off every warlord in Afghanistan for $1 billion.
Posted by Gary Howard on 11/19/09 Last updated 11/19/09
Today, AP is reporting the news of a judge's decision against the Army Corps of Engineers in a case assessing its culpability in the destruction that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I will make my disclaimer here, I am a native of New Orleans just one year removed from my hometown when the storm hit. I saw my family and everyone I knew displaced and affected by the disaster, and I knew just like everyone else who lived there that it was the government's fault. A man-made disaster.
Late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval sided with six residents and one business who argued the Army Corps' shoddy oversight of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet led to catastrophic flooding after Hurricane Katrina.
To call what happened in New Orleans an example of a massive government failure is actually just the beginning. What happened there is what happens when increased government and the subsequent political corruption goes unchecked and un-policed. There have been many jokes made about the level of corruption in Louisiana (it goes way back), the type of corruption that spread so wide it led to lapses in the most basic protections for its citizens. However, this was much more of a federal government disaster.
The ruling is also emotionally resonant for south Louisiana. Many in New Orleans have argued that Katrina, which struck the region Aug. 29, 2005, was a manmade disaster caused by the Army Corps' failure to maintain the levee system protecting the city.
In his 156-page ruling, Duval said he was "utterly convinced" that the corps' failure to shore up the channel "doomed the channel to grow to two to three times its design width" and that "created a more forceful frontal wave attack on the levee" that protected St. Bernard and the Lower 9th Ward.
"The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so," Duval said. "Clearly the expression 'talk is cheap' applies here."
The point here, without going on any longer about my home state's dysfunctions(it could fill books- don't forget Huey Long), is that the government sanctioned overseer of the one thing they needed to keep on top of, did not do its job. Why?-Because there was no accountability. One hopes this lawsuit brings about some positives, but probably not. The government will never take full accountability for its disasters, because bureaucrats believe that they are "serving the public" or something like that. WHich is why we should not trust them or give them the power to do things we can do our selves (or at least hire someone more competent to do for us).
Be sure to check out this new op-ed from Congressman Ron Paul and Senator Jim DeMint in The Wall Street Journal.
For nearly a century the Federal Reserve has operated in the shadows, away from the prying eyes of Congress, journalists and the American people. Created in 1913, the Fed was given enormous responsibility to protect the value of our currency. Yet in the last 96 years the U.S. dollar has lost more than 95% of its purchasing power. The Fed's unprecedented actions over the past year in attempting to stabilize the financial system have now forced it into the spotlight, and caused millions of people around the country to question the opacity of the Fed's financial transactions....
Financial Services leadership seems determined to include Audit the Fed as part of a regulatory reform package instead of passing it as a standalone bill.
While C4L will still do everything in its power to fight for a standalone vote on Audit the Fed on the House floor, it is critical we challenge Watt's amendment in Committee.
It will become much easier for our representatives to claim they still support Audit the Fed on the House floor if the Watt version passes, when, in reality, Representative Watt's amendment puts restrictions on Government Accountability Office audits of the Fed.
For example, Watt's amendment prevents the GAO from auditing or reviewing decisions to authorize, modify, extend, or terminate loans or liquidity facilities.
Congressman Paul will offer an amendment in Committee restoring an audit of the Fed's entire $2 trillion balance sheet, but we have received word that some of the Democrat members may be waffling on their support for his amendment.
Help us turn up the pressure on these members! Below is the list of Democrats on the committee who have cosponsored H.R. 1207. Please call them and urge them to vote "Yes" on Ron Paul's amendment. Click on their names to get their web contact information.
When contacting these members, remember that up to this point, they have been allies on this issue. A civil yet firm tone should be kept during these calls. They should be thanked for their cosponsorship, told that Mel Watt's changes to the bill are unacceptable, and urged to hold the line and honor their promise to support transparency at the Fed by voting "Yes" on Ron Paul's amendment.
For more information on the Watt amendment, check out this article by The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim.
We are continuing our work to achieve a standalone vote on H.R. 1207 on the House floor, but we must first stop the Watt amendment in the Financial Services Committee.
Make sure the Financial Services Committee members hear from you as soon as their offices open Thursday morning!
A vote could come any time tomorrow. Call, email, and fax the Financial Services Committee members to vote "Yes" on Congressman Ron Paul's amendment.
The Tennesseanreports that a Gibson Guitar plant in Nashville, Tennessee was raided by agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Their mission: to find out if Gibson Guitar was in violation of the U.S. Lacey Act, which now prohibits the use of some exotic and "endangered" woods from the world's rainforests:
Amid rainforest depletion, such woods are increasingly a focus of tight international controls. Last year, the U.S. Congress amended a turn-of-the-century wildlife protection law (the Lacey Act) to extend its reach to endangered timber species and plants.
The thinking here is that the government must ensure that uncaring entrepreneurs do nothing to wreck the environment. Nevermind the fact that these depleting forests are managed by their respective governments, U.S. Federal agencies must raid businesses to rescue "timber species." The article continues:
Sometimes it's possible for wood not allowed under the Lacey Act to slip through as a mistake, said Richard Hoover, founder of Santa Cruz Guitar Co. in California. Hoover said it's possible that his company may have been fooled into buying illegal wood.
"Illegal wood" is indicative of the so-called environmental agenda so pervasive in Washington. Respect for property rights in land ownership would go a long way toward saving the rainforest and protecting the environment, but don't tell that to the D.C. central planners.
Posted by Spiker on 11/17/09 Last updated 11/19/09
When any big name politician comes to Iowa there is only one question that pops into people's mind and Congressman Paul's trip to Iowa was no exception. The question that kept coming up at the events in Iowa: "Congressman Paul, Are you running for President in 2012?".
Just added: Liberty Morning HD Slide Show And Video Round Up Part 1 With Ron Paul, Kent Sorenson, Tom Lathan, Steve Deace
ABC News is reporting that Recovery.gov, the official website set up by the government to track stimulus spending, is listing stories of jobs created and saved - in congressional districts that don't exist.
For example, the website claims that 30 jobs have been saved or created in Arizona's 15th district. And this at a cost of $761,420 in federal funds.
Too bad Arizona only has eight districts.
According to Ed Pound, the Communications Director for the Recovery Board (which is supposed to track the spending), the government has expected all along there would be some "human error" in the reporting, especially since many people don't know which congressional district they live in.
But... isn't that your job, Mr. Pound? To make sure that the government doesn't simply regurgitate whatever people send it, but gives an accurate reporting?
*Sigh* And there are people who really want government in total charge of health care?
The reporting problems are not limited to Arizona, ABC News found.
In Oklahoma, recovery.gov lists more than $19 million in spending -- and 15 jobs created -- in yet more congressional districts that don't exist....
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
—Thomas Jefferson
Campaign for Liberty is a 501(c)4 lobbying organization which neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office and claims no responsibility for the actions of individuals or groups of individuals who use the Campaign for Liberty logo or name or who may claim to act as representatives of the Campaign for Liberty without prior written consent of the Campaign for Liberty. [?]
RSS Feed
