The Longest Word

Caroline Baum has an opinion piece about the administration proposals on "reform" of the financial system on Bloomberg.com titled Obama Bulks Up 'Too Big Too Fail' With Steroids. Here are two choice paragraphs.

In other words, the same folks who missed, or did nothing to prevent, the worst crisis since the Great Depression will definitely, absolutely, positively be able to anticipate the next one. Uh-huh.

It gets worse. Instead of eliminating the doctrine of “too big to fail,” which encourages risky behavior because of perceived government backing, the Obama plan defines, institutionalizes and expands on it.

It's a concise read which EBR generally endorses. EBR predicted in December that there would be a Bushbama continuity in the field of finance. The news continues to be bad in that regard. We learn today that the allegedly conservative Republican Robert Bennett of Utah would look positively at the appointment of Larry Summers as new Fed Chairman. Some populist Mr. Obama is turning out to be!

From the prism of 2001-5, with the country looking to be center-right politically, Jimmy Carter was remembered in many circles as a wild-eyed liberal. It was easy to forget that Sen. Edward Kennedy engaged in the unusual step of challenging a sitting President within his own party- and from the left, as not being liberal enough. The financial blogs I go to, which range from libertarian/center to left- has hardly a good word now to say about this administration's financial policies.

As predicted by EBR, the administration has accepted the recommendations of the G30, led by an AIG Vice President, for financial system reform. Mr. Obama is channeling the longest word we learned as schoolchildren: antidisestablishmentarianism. In short, this word means being pro-Establishment. One thing the Establishment does not like is change. It simply likes to change lipstick colors on the same pig.

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