That Loud Squeal You Hear

I originally published this in January 2010 

 

That loud squeal you hear is from Wall Street bankers. We're about to find out if President Obama "gets it." We'll also find out how many Democrats AND Republicans "get it" in both houses of Congress. The President is supposed to announce new proposals to curb Wall Street and the "anything goes" philosophy turned loose on the American public by Republicans, but aided and abetted (even urged) by some Democrats over a decade ago. From what I understand, the proposals will move the country back toward the Glass-Steagall Act that separated traditional banks from investment banks; that is, banks that take lots of risk. Further, some "fees" will be imposed on the banks and possibly the bankers. Oh my...it's got to be tough contemplating how to get by on 40 million a year rather than 50 million, and boy would many of us like to find out how tough it is, for even less than that amount.

This President has shown that he can be pushed and shoved around, by both Democrats and Republicans, but let's see if he finally takes a stand on something and doesn't give away the store because of nasty rhetoric from some opponents. Proposals to curb the banks need to be supplemented by curbs on commodity speculation, especially in such essentials to the very survival of the nation as oil and gasoline. I'll throw in natural gas, too, for I see T. Boone Pickens is running new ads about switching many oil using items over to "plentiful" American natural gas. I've said here before that Pickens is using his own money to promote turning us away from oil (much of it imported from countries that don't exactly invite us to birthday parties), and I have to give him a big hand for that, but I just don't trust the "inve$tment cla$$," better known to me as the "sit on their ass class." Once we switch, or probably once we commit to switching many things to natural gas, the "plentiful" part will disappear, and we'll be told, "There's a serious shortage of natural gas and you'll be paying double...no... triple (do I hear quadruple?) what it costs now."

All of this will test many Republicans, too. Will those bulwarks of "free markets" turn against their philosophy? Will the threat of regulation of the financial system bring cries of how the Republic is about to end? This could get interesting.