Free Republic

If you want to see where the American left wants to take us, just look at the history they want us to ignore. One of the most egregious examples of failed socialist policy is in the area of transportation. In the post-World War II period you would have expected America’s freight railroads to have been thriving in a booming economy. But the opposite happened. By 1972 many major freight railroads had gone into bankruptcy including the venerable New York Central and the behemoth Pennsylvania. Other failures included the Boston & Maine, Lehigh Valley and Reading. CEO Benjamin Biaggini of the...

We Didn’t DeregulateFrom the April 5, 2010, issue of NR. When Barack Obama was running for president, he made no secret of his plan to “restore commonsense regulation� by closing up regulatory “loopholes� he blamed Republicans for opening. Deregulation of the financial industry, he argued, was a main cause of the financial crisis.Much like Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression, President Obama offered a sweeping, ambitious regulatory agenda: a total revamp of the financial industry, including reform of the process by which loans are converted into securities; more robust federal regulation of credit-rating agencies; the creation of a systemic-risk...

I don’t know about you, but I love to fly. Put me in a Boeing 707, a Douglas DC-8, or a Convair 990 and I’m literally in heaven. Once we’re safely aloft I sit back in my roomy, brocade-upholstered seat, loosen my tie, stretch my legs all the way out, and call that slender, honey-voiced 23-year-old stewardess in the attractive Pucci uniform over there to bring me a pillow, an aspirin, and an Old Fashioned. Later, she’ll give me a deck of cards and I and maybe even sit in the empty seat beside me for a hand of gin...

Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there's a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios. . .

“Tainted honey can contain pathogens or chemicals,” Watkins says. “It’s not often the case with hobby beekeepers, but the issue is, a lot of food is changing. Peanut butter is growing bacteria now. The possibility is there.” No other food is allowed manufacturing without health department inspection, Watkins says, and the bill would create a dangerous precedent.

The causes of the Great Recession of 2008-2010 (and possibly beyond) have been debated and explored in many publications, including on these pages. One of the arguments that I see frequently, even among Conservatives, is that the banking industry collapse was a direct result of the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 by the Republican Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. Today, Obama is expected to announce the creation of a new regulatory scheme that would effectively be Glass-Staegall II. Such a move would be a big mistake, and would do nothing to avert another similar crisis in the...

Regular readers may recall that I have occasionally declared the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) to be my favorite magazine. The Fall issue is in the mail and the Claremont folks have once again let me select two pieces from the new issue to preview. First up is James Keller's "Is Deregulation to Blame?" In the review Keller evaluates two new books on cause of the financial crisis. Taking issue with Judge Richard Posner'sA Failure of Capitalism, Keller asserts that the financial crisis wasn't caused by financial deregulation. The solution to the crisis is therefore not more regulation. The...

Kennedy thought government could solve all of our problems By Sheldon Richman Last update: August 30, 2009 - 11:17 AM Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is gone. No one in the last 40 years stood as a larger symbol of “liberalism,” the view that government is the answer for everything. A great deal has been said in recent days about his compassion and generosity. But bear in mind that in public life, his compassion consisted in spending other people's money and authorizing government bureaucracies to interfere with the social cooperation that takes place whenever life, liberty, and property are respected. We...

On Wall and Main streets they call William Jefferson Clinton the "comeback kid," but it's not because of some election-day surprise. It's because most everything he did regarding financial services regulation has come back to haunt us. If it wasn't apparent before, the former president's handiwork became clear last week when President Obama announced sweeping financial services reform. The plan's efforts to bring fair dealing to the mortgage markets, rules to the derivative marketplace and restraint to big financial firms underscored the missteps of the second Clinton term. The first was a change in 1997 to the amount of taxes...

Paul Krugman continues his one man assault on the legacy of Ronald Reagan with a column today that essentially blames the entire financial meltdown on one obscure law passed during the Reagan era, the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982. This is an act that essentially deregulated S&L's and was one factor in their eventual demise in the late 1980's. Now, Krugman purports to blame this very same act on the current crisis. Now, I was very skeptical of Conservatives blaming the Community Reinvestment Act for the crisis. It's very rare that an obscure law actually creates this much...

After virtually every disaster created by Beltway politicians you can hear the sound of feet scurrying for cover, see fingers pointing in every direction away from Washington, and watch all sorts of scapegoats hauled up before congressional committees to be denounced on television for the disasters created by members of the committee who are lecturing them. The word repeated endlessly in these political charades is "deregulation." The idea is that it was a lack of government supervision which allowed "greed" in the private sector to lead the nation into crises that only our Beltway saviors can solve. What utter rubbish...

For a while now I’ve been saying that Romney is no conservative, and anyone holding him up as the hope for the conservative movement against Obama in 2012 is fooling themselves. During his campaign for the Republican nomination in 2007/2008 Romney held himself up as a rock-ribbed conservative. The reality is that he’s a power-hungry politician. He was one of the first political leaders in America to institute what amounts to a nationalized health care system in Massachusetts, and his various positions on abortion have changed so often in timing so convenient for his political career as to leave one...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Wednesday that his party needs to take a fresh approach to government regulations in the wake of the economic crisis that has rattled the U.S. and world economies. In an interview with The Hill, Romney said, “We as Republicans misspeak when we say we don’t like regulation. We like modern, up-to-date dynamic regulation that is regularly reviewed, streamlined, modernized and effective.” . . . . . Romney believes that one way to attract more minorities to the GOP is to pass immigration reform before the next election, saying the issue becomes demagogued by...

Maryland lawmakers Monday became the latest to ask utility companies to extend a deadline for cutting electricity to delinquent customers. They join officials in Massachusetts, Indiana and elsewhere who have been forced to extend deadlines to accommodate a record number of customers who have fallen behind on their bills, in part as a result of higher rates and the global economic crisis. Maryland has more than 120,000 customers facing cutoffs after April 1, which marks the end of a winter moratorium on shutoffs for customers, usually three months past due. Last week, the state's Public Service Commission extended the deadline...

Excerpts from a 4 part New York Times article intended to lay the total blame for the financial collapse on Alan Greenspan, Phil Gramm and deregulation, but what it really does is show that the government is filled with crooks and is totally incompetent regarding running the economy. The sooner control is wrested from government's corrupt hands the better. Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy Excerpt from part 3: In 1997, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency that regulates options and futures trading, began exploring derivatives regulation. The commission, then led by a lawyer named Brooksley...

In the long run, when we are all dead, historians will be debating the root causes behind the global financial meltdown of 2008. They will join up multiple dots, just as they did after the September 11 terror attacks. Among the precipitating factors, toxic mortgage debt securities grossly inflated banks’ balance sheets and investors’ portfolios. Credit rating agencies blessed those assets’ illusory values. Real estate tumbled in a vicious downward spiral, while steep oil prices helped reverse the business cycle. Inadequate regulation, in America and elsewhere, clearly exacerbated all the other drivers. Specifically, when regulators permitted major American investment banks...

’Round Midnight by: Daniel Allen, January 26, 2009 The Center for American Progress (CAP) released a report last week discussing outgoing President Bush’s “midnight regulations” and how the organization hopes President Barack Obama will respond. All presidents in recent years have issued notices of proposed rulemaking as their terms have neared an end, and incoming presidents always try to reverse at least some of the proposed regulations. According to the CAP report, “President George W. Bush took unprecedented steps to make his last-year regulations harder to overturn.” The report goes further into detail: “In May, 2008, White House Chief of...

By Warner Todd Huston @ StopTheACLU.com Bush tried to regulate and supervise Fannie and Freddie… but the Democrats scoffed at it all and blocked Bush from trying to fix the financial mess. So, whose fault is the economic mess? Here is what Representative Barney Frank said in 2003 about Fannie and Freddie: “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not in a crisis.” “The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the treasury, which I do not see — I think we see entities...

Culprit was deregulation You recently ran an article which asked if 2008 could be the start of a great depression. It could well be. I have never seen anything like this in my life and I have been around for several decades. One thing is certain: it was adherence to the neocon philosophy of laissez-faire capitalism and deregulation which brought us to where we are now. The American people were warned about this by the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s (subprime's little brother) and the recession of 1990. Reagan and his successors engaged in deregulation of the...

When European powers ask the United States to "join forces" with them, their intent is for America to act in a supportive role, not one in which it takes the lead. To believe otherwise is to suggest that Europe places America's interests above its own. And though they may suggest such commitment from us, they are not so reckless as to entertain pursuing a similar course themselves. Yet the fact that Obama was being asked, in essence, to do little more than to heed the EU's beckoning was lost in the nuance of Reuters' reporting. To the average reader, the...

The new Washington consensus says "yes." The facts on the ground say something different. You might not be able to tell by looking at it on the page, but deregulation has become a four-letter word in Washington. In October’s vice presidential debate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) practically spat it out: “If you need any more proof positive of how bad the economic theories have been, this excessive deregulation, the failure to oversee what was going on, letting Wall Street run wild, I don’t think you needed any more evidence than what you see now.� Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi...

Deregulation made the prosperity of the 1990s possible. Just ask Bill Clinton. Republicans had many things going against them this election, but the financial market implosion in September proved to be the final blow that sealed their losses, as voters almost always associate the economy with the party in power. And when the credit crisis emerged as the top campaign issue, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pounced on his opponent with two basic messages. One was to blame the policies of deregulation that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted for. And the second was to hug former rivals Bill and Hillary Clinton...

WE'VE heard it again and again: The financial crisis was caused by the Bush administration's reckless deregulation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blames the mess on "the Bush administration's eight long years of failed deregulation policies." Billionaire investor George Soros declares that "excessive deregulation is at the root of the current crisis." Economist Nouriel Roubini pins it on "these Bush hypocrites, who spewed for years the glory of unfettered Wild West laissez-faire jungle capitalism." President Jimmy Carter attributes it to the "atrocious economic policies of the Bush administration," particularly "deregulation and . . . a withdrawal of supervision of Wall Street."...

As bad a year as the stock market is having, Treasury Secretary Paulson is having an even worse one, according to William Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri. The professor, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis and blew the whistle on the "Keating Five" in 1989, says Paulson deserves an "F-minus" for his role in the financial crisis. "All of his policies made [the crisis] worse," says Black, citing Paulson's: * Pushing for more deregulation of the securities and mortgage businesses. * Failure to recognize the...

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that aren't true."--attributed to Mark TwainEasy answers are seldom correct ones. That principle seems to be at work as the nation struggles to discover the causes of the financial crisis now rocking the economy. Looking for a simple and politically convenient villain, many politicians have blamed deregulation by the Bush Administration.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for instance, stated last month that "the Bush Administration's eight long years of failed deregulation policies have resulted in our nation's largest bailout ever, leaving the American...

As we've documented the myriad ways that Washington encouraged the housing bubble, the media and Democrats continue to search for evidence to blame it all on "deregulation." One alleged perpetrator, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, was released without charges after the record revealed that Joe Biden voted for it and Bill Clinton signed it. More to the point, investment banks were already free, prior to the 1999 law, to invest in the same assets that have wreaked such havoc today. Barack Obama nonetheless attacks President Bush's policies to "strip away regulation," without mentioning a single example. In an attempt to fill out...

I'll keep this short and sweet. Someone needs to tell McCain that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the epitome of failed government regulation. They were created to regulate the way loans are doled out, n'est pas? So the next time His Highness, Obama, slams McCain for "bragging" about being a de-regulator, he needs to grow a pair and point this out! And while he's at it, he needs to create "ECORN" Expose the Community Activist Right Now. Okay, I feel better now. I can eat my sandwich.

This morning I received an email from the Obama campaign. In it they lay out their plan to attack John McCain for his role in the Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse. At first I thought this a move of foolishness, but then I read a report in the Washington Post that only reemphasized the connection. Nothing like a willing media to distort history and fill your minds with innuendo. And lies. Dems: Forget Ayers, Remember Keating "During the savings and loan crisis of the late 80s and early 90s, McCain's political favor and aggressive support for deregulation put him at...

It is essential to the future that we not let the Democrats get away with this "deregulation" canard they have pulled out post the Paulson-Pelosi bailout. The subprime mess was a direct result of an unsupervised and corrupt government program. Yes, private actors got involved, and yes regulators were not as effective cops on the beat as they could have been, but core of the problem was fannie and freddie, not "deregulation". We must win this argument for the American people.

Important information about the deregulation bill Democrats are blaming for causing the economic problems:The bills were introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (R-TX) and in the House of Representatives by James Leach (R-IA). The bills were passed by a 54-44 vote along party lines with Republican support in the Senate and by a 343-86 vote in the House of Representatives. Nov 4, 1999: After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the...

Anyone who tries to explain the Wall Street crisis in a single sound-bite is foolish…or worse. But House Democratic Leaders have found a culprit they can agree on: deregulation. “This is the fruit of decades of ‘leave the market alone, don’t regulate it. It will take care of itself,” Says House Banking Committee Chairman Barney Frank. His solution? “Clearly we’ve got to get some regulation here.” “The Bush Administration’s eight long years of failed deregulation policies” is the problem, declares House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “A stark failure of the economy and this administration’s laissez faire, take the referee off the...

My father-in law keeps telling me our state (PA) is deregulating electric by the end of 2011 and that we are going to see a 30% increase in rates. I can;t seem to find anything about this anywhere. I always thought deregulation was a good thing...

At this week’s G8 Summit, the cost of gasoline is one of the main topics of discussion. With the price of crude oil hovering around $136 a barrel, the industrialized world is looking for answers. But none seem to exist right now. Some blame the skyrocketing costs on increased demand. However, the International Energy Agency does not expect the demand for diesel and heating oil to grow by much — only 0.9 % in 2008. Others are blaming low oil reserves. OPEC says otherwise. In fact, it increased its production. Its secretary general, Abdullah al-Badri, told Reuters on Tuesday, “The...

  The Library of Congress > THOMAS Home > Bills, Resolutions > Search Results THIS SEARCH THIS DOCUMENT GO TO Next Hit Forward New Bills Search Prev Hit Back HomePage Hit List Best Sections Help Contents Display GPO's PDF Display Congressional Record References Bill Summary & Status Printer Friendly Display - 2,526 bytes.[Help] TRUCC Act (Introduced in Senate) S 2910 IS 110th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2910To require brokers to disclose and pay independent truckers for any fuel surcharges received from shippers that relate to fuel costs paid for by the truckers. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 24, 2008 Ms. SNOWE (for herself...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- You know things are very very bad on Wall Street when a guy like Henry Paulson -- Treasury secretary, solid Republican, and former Goldman Sachs CEO -- joins the crowd calling for more regulation over the financial markets. Paulson spared no one in his criticism Thursday of the excesses of deregulation that has now created the worst global financial crisis in a generation, threatening the health of the U.S. economy, the savings of millions of Americans, and the survival of some of the biggest financial institutions in the world. Wall Street and Washington both failed big time,...

BALTIMORE (AP) — Constellation Energy frustrated Maryland regulators yesterday by skipping a hearing to discuss costs passed on to consumers because of deregulation, highlighting a standoff between the state and the utility over increasing energy costs. The state's Public Service Commission scheduled the hearing to address Constellation's complaints about recent commission reports on costs and decommissioning expenses for nuclear power plants at Calvert Cliffs, which were transferred to Constellation under a 1999 settlement. An order for the hearing specifically required the attendance of Constellation subsidiary Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. (BGE) and "invited" Constellation to attend to answer questions more...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday said he plans to do all he can to restore state regulatory power over utilities, a day after Constellation Energy announced a lawsuit to recoup $386 million it says Maryland shouldn't have forced them to give customers. "I also want to add that we will spare no expense when it comes to investing in whatever additional legal help that we need, or whatever professional experts and consultants we need, or expert witnesses in order to stand up for the best interests for the people of our state," Mr. O'Malley said. The governor, who reconfigured...

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that the state will make available an additional $5 million to Marylanders struggling to pay their electric bills, after a 50 percent rate increase by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said the money will enable 3,000 more families to receive assistance. The state's energy-assistance program has been increased to $57 million for people who meet the income-eligibility requirement of 175 percent of the federal poverty line. Mr. O'Malley said that equates to roughly $40,000 in annual income for a family of four. "There are very few issues that are...

BRUSSELS -- The European Union unveiled an ambitious blueprint for combating global warming and boosting energy efficiency, but key elements of the plan face strong opposition from business interests and could require major battles to get them implemented. The European Commission yesterday published a long-awaited proposal for the bloc's first common energy strategy, a version of which will be discussed at a summit of the EU's 27 national leaders in March. "Europe must lead the world into a new -- or maybe one should say post-industrial -- revolution: the development of a low-carbon economy," said commission President José Manuel Barroso....

TOKYO -- The decline in Japan's population could undermine the country's economic recovery unless workers perform more productively, and the new economy minister is taking aim at inefficient industries and workers. Hiroko Ota, who took office in September, faces an economy that is back on track after more than a decade in a slump. Japan's big structural problems have mostly been fixed: The banks have cleaned up their bad loans, and prices have stopped falling. Japan's economy grew at an average of more than 2% a year from 2003 through 2005, and it is expected to grow another 2% or...

Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and regions in Europe are giving it a try -- with good results. "We reject every form of legislation," the Russian aristocrat and "father of anarchism" Mikhail Bakunin once thundered. The czar banished him to Siberia. But now it seems his ideas are being rediscovered. European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and...

PARIS A man who played a key role in the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1980, Tom Allison, at the time chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, says that if senators had known then what they know now about airline deregulation, they would never have passed the measure. Allison says that by lifting restrictions on airline competition, and on where airlines could fly, Congress unintentionally created unending disruption and cost to both industry and consumers, with gross accompanying inefficiencies. In an interview given to the International Herald Tribune in February, intended to influence the current debate...

ANNAPOLIS -- Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (BGE) executives say state lawmakers are "overplaying their hand" by trying to negotiate lower electric bills with threats to block the company's multibillion-dollar merger with a Florida utility. "They understate the value of our proposal and overstate the value of their leverage," said Robert L. Gould, communications director for Constellation Energy Group Inc., the parent company of BGE. "The legislature needs to be more realistic." Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, and leaders of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly have rejected the power company's offer to phase in a 72 percent increase in...

Impending increases in electricity bills will bring Maryland in line with average energy costs in the region, but that hasn't stopped the political blame game over the hit to voters' wallets. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican seeking re-election, has borne the brunt of the attacks from the Democratic-controlled legislature, the state Democratic Party, his gubernatorial rivals and even longtime supporters. "The governor's focus hasn't been on finger pointing and it hasn't been on casting blame," Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver said yesterday. "It has been on working with legislative leaders to mitigate the 72 percent rate increase. Period."

AUSTIN - Under electricity deregulation, Texans have paid some of the highest rates in the nation -- a reversal of at least a decade of relatively cheap electricity under the state's old regulated system. That's the conclusion of a national utility expert, who also reports that those in deregulated states typically have had larger rate increases than customers in states still under regulation. Separate academic reports likewise show, after making adjustments for inflation and other factors, that electricity prices in Texas have gone up since 1996, while those in regulated states have gone down; and that in general terms, electricity...

Maryland candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate are scrambling for ideas on how to prevent astronomic electricity-rate increases in the summer and say the issue will play a prominent role in both races. The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. plans to increase rates by 72 percent in July, the expiration date for artificial caps imposed by state legislators in 1999 to ease Maryland's move into deregulation. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and his opponent in the Democratic primary, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, think the state should force the utility company to reduce rate increases by threatening to delay...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has agreed to put an additional $1 billion this year into a program to help poor people with energy costs, but only after overcoming resistance from warm state senators who said those suffering from summer heat weren't getting their fair share.The additional spending would increase to $3.1 billion the amount the federal government will have this year for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a decades-old program that subsidizes heating and cooling costs for poor families.The legislation, which still must be considered by the House, passed by a voice vote Tuesday, but only after a...

Under the delayed payment plan, BGE customers would pay less than the market rate for the first eight months. For the remaining months of the two-year plan, customers would have to pay extra charges to make up for the amount of their true bill. Customers would have to pay 5 percent in annual interest. Against its staff's recommendation, the Public Service Commission ordered that all BGE customers would be automatically enrolled in the deferred payment plan, though they can opt out and pay the full market price to avoid interest payments.

The Republican Congress can’t seem to touch health care without making America sick. While Health Savings Accounts are a recent plus, the long-feared Medicare drug benefit premiered January 1 to widespread panic. Seniors are confused and frustrated, while fiscal conservatives stand aghast as tax dollars fly from the Treasury like bats fleeing a cave. Congress can redeem itself with a simple and cost-free cure rather than an elaborate and expensive complication. The Health Care Choice Act, sponsored by Rep. John Shadegg (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), would let American consumers purchase health insurance across state lines, just...

HOUSTON, Sept. 9 - Republican leaders in Congress and some White House officials see opportunities in Hurricane Katrina to advance longstanding conservative goals like giving students vouchers to pay for private schools, paying churches to help with temporary housing and scaling back business regulation.