Some simple concepts for law-making.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

As everyone knows, and as everyone learned from Prohibition, a law only matters inasmuch as it is enforced. What this means with regards to the dizzying world of finance, is that any number of rules and regulations on books are meaningless. Another very simple concept for people to grasp is that too few cops equals very little enforcement. However, when it comes to Wall St., this basic intuition is lost in a flood information and bewildering language that regular people don't have the time to figure out. This is generally ok, since we have a government whose job it is is to understand and police these things, right?

Very roughly, and very briefly, one of the over-arching problems with our system is that the Federal Reserve has mammoth regulatory authority, and uses very little of it. It's like having a police department but no police. Just a building with a sign, like the fake security system signs people put up to fool people into thinking they have a security system.

The other basic concept is regulatory capture. Regulatory capture is simply a harmless sounding euphemism for corruption. Corruption is bad, whereas regulatory capture is an arcane thing having something to do with some system I don't understand anyway. What this concept entails is that these fake security system signs are actually fake and bought by the burglars. They're nice little signs letting people know which houses to hit: the ones without security systems with a fake sign neatly announcing their vulnerability to other predators.

So when we discuss regulation or responses to problems, the legislative agenda is entirely moot because there aren't any cops . And what cops there are, are patsies. Here's how the language works: Afghanistan suffers from corruption and decrepit governance. America suffers from regulatory capture and under-funded agencies.

What we have isn't a problem, per se, just some wrinkles that need a little touching up. We aren't like Afghanistan. Afghanistan is bad. We're just very complicated. The language we use about ourselves and about others highlights the lack of clarity and understanding, while explaining why people aren't all that concerned about it. We have procedural issues but other countries are just plain bad.

Comments

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Why do you hate free enterprise?

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

There is no such thing as a free enterprise!

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

I agree. Kirk, Picard and the lot of them are just space-age fascists.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

oh, but don't you know that the whole financial crisis in the US is because of all those state agencies that roll around in money.

Also: regulations lead to doom. The only answer is to cut bureaucracy = state agency money. blah blah... and so on.

Also, let's saute Irish children to solve the crisis. Etc.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

the sad thing is that both side are right about the problem and probably wrong about the solution.

Post Hoc...

We did _____ once and it was good/bad.

If we did _____ 10 times harder things'll be 10 times better/worse.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

So, you don't belong to any side then? Or are you just saying that the solution is unreachable?

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

And still some others are less worse.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

"9-9-9" is a catchy phrase; let's give it a try. If that doesn't work, we can talk the drummer in a black metal band to run for president under "6-6-6".

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Is 9-9-9, Nine pizzas, Nine Toppings, Nine dollars?

I get so confused by the GOP candidate of the week. Two weeks ago it was Rick Perry, last week it was Chris Christie, this week it's Herman Cain.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Suddenly, Ron Paul is looking like the least illogical choice (given all the illogical choices)

Anybody but Ron Paul!!!

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

The Republican establishment is desperate not to upset the status quo. That's why they will keep advancing candidates as long as they are uncertain about whether Ron Paul may be able to beat the ones they've put forward so far. As a fall-back, scorched-earth strategy, the establishment will see to it that Barack Obama is elected to a second term before they allow Paul anywhere near the Whitehouse. Supporting Paul may be a brilliant move for Democrats.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Pretending that taxes and regulation are why the economy is in the shitter is a big part of the problem.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

got a post chock full o data and hyperbole to back that claim up, Bub?

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Listen pal, you only get data OR hyperbole so pick one.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Yes, we don't have to pretend. :)

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Unless you get specific, you end up sounding as simplistic as the following GOP member of the House:

Regulation, simply put, extracts wealth from our economy. It costs us opportunity. And regulation challenges us to succeed in spite of the federal government, not with the help of federal government.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Bah, abolish the state and privatize everything. Then human basic decency shall shine forth and all shall be well and sunshines and pixies and rainbows will make the Earth and all that is in it perfect. Human charity will prove to be inexorable and irresistible bereft of the dead hand of government, corruption and bribery only exist because of government, privilege and hereditary advantage are only due to government. Abolish the state and make all things private and human goodness can only flourish. Retain the dead, skeletal, evil hand of government and you shall persist in tying down humankind. So sez Comrade Rosenbaum.

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Human freedom is a fact of reality. We can either deal with reality or not, but if we evade the necessity of identifying the facts and conforming our actions to them, there are natural consequences for doing so. Rand was not the only one to point this out, and mischaracterizing her arguments the way you have concinves nobody of your intellectual accumen but those more ignorant than yourself.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Bullshit, it's a fact won by force of arms.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

I have been told by the right that we should not be protesting because our quality of life is better than, for example, that of Afghanis.

As soon as I see a polo match where the ball is a human head, though, I'm hitting the streets and I expect the right to be at my side.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, talking about damning with faint praise. "Our human rights are better than a society with a 30 years' war, whoo!".

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

lol yeah, euphemistic language.

Those other guys are drunk but us? We're the life of the party.

Those aren't Wall Street crooks. They're job providers.

It's not a war. It's a police action.

I bet that one of these days, somebody will change "rape" into "it's like lovemaking...only it hurts a little more".

You've got to love the Devils Dictionary....

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

One that Ambrose Bierce may have missed:

Rape: (n) a sexual act whose consensuality is in dispute by one or more parties to the act.

"Political Language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
— George Orwell

You're identifying one of the fundamental problems of politics.

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Translation: people want to look informed and intelligent by holding an opinion about some socio-politico-economic phenomenon of which they have heard, but not to the point of actually learning anything significant about it.

Agreed.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

This is the #1 issue. The regulation we have is never enforced.