In the Washington Post today: “Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner today proposed a sweeping expansion of federal authority over the financial system, breaking from an era in which the government stood back from financial markets and allowed participants to decide how much risk to take in the pursuit of profit.” When will people realize that it was GOVERNMENT actions that created distortions in the market which caused our current crisis. It brings to mind a quote from GK Chesterton: “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”
As an aside, on Tuesday, CNBC announced that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were in a position to pay back the TARP money in the very near future. Goldman Sachs had $100 billion in cash, while Morgan Stanley was not far behind. Sources in the government informed CNBC that if an attempt is made to pay back the TARP money, Congress will pass a law forcing them to keep the money. Why? Control. The government now has leverage over these corporations, so now why would they want to give that up? Scary…