"Too many people on Wall Street have been recklessly wagering instead of making the sound investments we expected of them.... Too many people on Wall Street have forgotten or disregarded the basic rules of sound finance.... Too many firms on Wall Street have been able to count on casual oversight by regulatory agencies in Washington."Ezra Klein of The American Prospect points out:
"Three years ago, John McCain signed on to George W. Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security. He surveyed Wall Street and decided that it was a stable enough institution to entrust with the nation's pension funds. Three years ago. And this wasn't just an attempt to cozy up to Bush: McCain was arguing for privatization in 1999. So McCain's argument is that Wall Street is built atop an unstable regulatory foundation and is shot through with most of the seven deadly sins. That the situation has been allowed to fester so long is evidence that "people were asleep at the switch." Even so, McCain has consistently argued that much of Social Security should be turned over to ... Wall Street. Either he wanted to tank the nation's pensions funds or he was one of the people asleep at the switch. But those are really the only two options here."McCain doesn't get it and doesn't care.
Full Ezra Klein article here
As seen in the comments: "Our whole capitalist system is based on the assumption that people are greedy--or rather that they will work in their self-interest and maximize their utility. That's why we need governments to step in a regulate in order to stop dangerous things that the firms in the financial sector might do that is in their individual self-interest but is not in the interest of the country, or even Wall Street as a whole."
No comments:
Post a Comment