Organizing for America told me I had to vote for this thing. Sadly, the AP release does not say much more than the email missive. They did, however, extensively cover the decoy. I was told I needed to call Senator Burr and tell him to support the bill. The reasons given were: (1) Burr opposed the bill, and (2) Big bank lobbyists were trying to get exemptions and loopholes. No reference was made to the content. Either everybody has already read the 1500-page bill and its most recent amendments, or a lot of people like to follow without understanding.

Thank you, Wall Street Journal. As some reports mentioned the bill would make it easier for banks to liquidate, but not at the expense of taxpayers; WSJ confirmed suspicions that it made it easier for the federal government to seize failing financial institutions. The Treasury (not taxpayers, no, no relation whatsoever) would pay for partial costs.

The bill not only would create an oversight dude, it would create a Financial Stability Oversight Council. Said council would be charged with prognosticating the risks of trading. The school of thought formerly called libertarian but now called racist has long maintained that remote control by broad brush strokes, especially if conducted by appointees, works worse than the people putting their own necks on the line. People are motivated when they “have a dog in the fight.” These days, the only people with a chance of winning are government officials. If you work hard for a profit, expect the rules to change so the government can claim it.

Anyway, said board also has the power to break up financial firms – as if federal regulators did not instill in bankers a fear of irrational manipulation as things were. The bill would give the Fed authority to supervise the largest financial firms “to ensure that the government understands the risks . . .” When was the last time government understood anything? We would also get a new Office of National Insurance to play God and exercise their powers of clairvoyance and prophecy in preparing studies for the president.

To make the bill appeal to internal terrorists, it did contain a provision for auditing the Fed. The whole Audit the Fed movement is moot. Small corporations hide money from auditors all the time. It is difficult to comprehend how the all-seeing Illuminati would lack the savvy to figure out how to hide money from political appointees. For a good overview, click here.

In a totally unrelated matter, the stock market took a nosedive.