• Policy Development By Panic

American taxpayers should not read anything into today’s stock market supposed reactions to the President's verbal and policy attacks on banks. Markets have little to do with realities of the broader world and its economics. The Presidential attacks, however, should be very troubling to taxpayers for more profound reasons.

Obama is vociferously attacking “risk taking,” that very human characteristic at the heart of America’s success. Observing his address, it is evidently something he doesn’t have a good grasp of. It is also very, very obvious that the President does not understand business, or economics, even at their simplest denominations. The economy and its future progress is very dependent on risk taking.

This post has written repeatedly against the abuse by Wall Street, and has called for the re-instatement of “the Glass-Steagall Act (except as it pertains to the Fed) that was for the most part repealed in 1999 eliminating the restrictions of affiliations between banks and “investment banks,” … and don’t listen to any bankers who tell you different with stories about diversification reducing risk, or banks being completely capable of regulating themselves.” There is no need for knight-on-horse-saving-the-day-grandstanding. Congress should restore the act, but in the meantime, we can sit back and enjoy the theatre as the President shows us how to distinguish market making from proprietary trading within the banks.

Obama’s rhetoric of new populist policies against banks, comes across as a simplistic attempt to flirt with what he thinks is Main Street’s perception of banks. This also smells of the disingenuous, given this Administration’s early actions during the “bailout” debacle, that gave so much credence, and amperage, to the too-big-to-fail idiocy. It obstinately, and uncomprehendingly, provided hundreds of billions for the creation of financial behemoths. No preconditions were established, nor were any strings attached to the money. Wall Street played with this Administration, as it did with the Bush Administration, and helped itself to taxpayer-borrowed cash. This President should be taught that failure, big or small, is part of the long road to both personal and business success.

Contrary to Obama’s claims, the financial meltdown was NOT caused by the reckless abandon of speculative bankers mired in greed. It was the direct result of cheap money from The Fed, being pushed onto consumers with little, or no credit, by a Congress, which believed in the mantra, “everyone should own a home.” If anything, we would like to hear about some reigning in of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, . . . just for starters. The greed which drove the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and City Bank beyond the fringes of ethical boundaries was not the root cause of the disaster the world is now burdened with.

Obama’s attack on banks is a knee-jerk reaction in response to the devastating Democrat loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat this week. This breathes the fragrance of panic. The President evidently has no idea how to approach the most important concern on the minds of his constituents – stimulating the creation of jobs. He should stay away from teleprompters for a few weeks, and educate himself on the workings of businesses, and the economy. Then he should surround himself with advisors who have actually managed a wide variety of successful enterprises. The result should then be a speech, without teleprompter, impassionedly promoting American business and ingenuity to the national and international community.

What America will definitely not need is a lecture on what its core values should be.