Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Keating 5 and Thoughts on Dergulation



The McCain campaign lives in a big glass house and now they are throwing bricks at the Obama campaign. In response, this documentary, and a companion website have been released.

The research section of this site is really an eye opener. It has all kinds of letters etc that spell out exactly what this was about. For example: This is a quote from a letter John McCain wrote to the Whitehouse Chief of Staff at the time, James Baker.

Regarding regulation:

"I believe it to be unwise, and I think it flys (sic) in the face of our recent efforts to remove the hand of government from the affairs of private enterprise."


Here's the thing that really bothers me: We have a society here which is made up of human beings. We have agreed that human beings cannot be trusted to always regulate themselves and that the creation of "civilization" requires regulations. . also known as "laws." Without these laws people's primal natures are allowed to run wild and we have anarchy, chaos, tyranny and death.

Human beings once had a free market where everyone was on their own. The strongest families rose to the top and gathered power for themselves. This led to a world overrun for thousands of years by a number of tyrant leaders oppressing their populations and robbing them, and the land, of all wealth. Yet even these tyrants admitted that they needed regulations or their kingdoms would quickly fall apart.

The United States of America is very high minded scheme which attempts to create a society with a level playing field. We pride ourselves on this intention to give everyone a fair shot at success. Yet this doesn't happen without massive regulation imposed upon all of us. By agreeing to this regulation, America has benefited from the talents of many more people, and it has become very powerful.

Why is it that when it comes to human society, regulations (aka law and order) are considered necessary and it is a high minded goal to create a level playing field for all people. Yet, in the financial world, where society's well being is directly effected, regulation is an evil force that is ruining everything? Is there really a difference between tyranny and fraud in civilization and tyranny and fraud in the "marketplace?" Aren't civilization and "the market" a reflection of each other and dependent on each others outcomes?

1 comment:

SBVOR said...

The evidence, from the admittedly “Liberal” New York Times, as well as the very “Liberal” PBS Online News Hour PROVES that this pathetic and unfounded attempt to smear McCain with the crimes of Keating is unmitigated BUNK!

1) Although McCain had dealings with Keating (who was a constituent in McCain’s district), McCain was NOT connected in ANY WAY to the CRIMES committed by Keating (and even The New York Times ADMITTED IT).

2) McCain did NOT support, IN ANY WAY, Keating’s request for regulators to ignore his violations (much less eliminate the regulations).

3) In FACT, even the New York Times admits that the Keating scandal ONLY involved Democrats (which is precisely why the Dems were so DESPERATE to lynch the ONLY Republican they could even REMOTELY connect to Keating)!

Quoting the New York Times:

“The special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee has recommended that the panel clear two of the five Senators under investigation for their links to the savings and loan debacle, Congressional officials said today.

In a confidential report submitted to the committee on Sept. 10, the special counsel, Robert S. Bennett, concluded that there was not adequate evidence to merit a full-scale investigation of John Glenn, an Ohio Democrat, and John McCain, an Arizona Republican, several officials said.”

“If Mr. McCain is dropped from the investigation, the political implications could be significant: He is the only Republican under scrutiny, and Republicans could portray the scandal as a Democratic one.”


4) Quoting the very “Liberal” PBS Online News Hour:

“The Senate Ethics Committee concluded that Glenn and McCain's involvement in the scheme was minimal and dropped the charges against them. In August 1991, the committee ruled that the other three [DEMOCRATIC] senators had acted improperly in interfering with the Federal Home Loan Banking Board's investigation.”

Click here for the UNDENIABLE FACTS on what REALLY caused the current housing mess (AND the Keating related S&L mess).