American capitalism - led by and caricatured as the financial industry centered on Wall Street - is predicated on the notion that the market is driven by fundamentally economic motives. To its admirers, that means its dynamics are dictated by profit motivation. Wall Street's critics call it greed.
On Dec. 28, the Financial Times announced, "China has again outshone the U.S. as the top venue for initial public offerings." How is it that since 2008, a self-proclaimed communist country raises more capital and has more new firms going public than the great bastion of free-market capitalism, the United States? Answer: Members of Congress have been killing the U.S. financial markets because of hubris, incompetence and a lust for power and money.
The Obama administration has showered its allies at ACORN Housing with $729,849 so far this year despite powerful, newly unveiled evidence of corruption and massive accounting irregularities at the longtime affiliate of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).
Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a quick-witted and outspoken voice of the liberal House caucus for more three decades who helped write the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial systems since the Great Depression, announced Monday he wouldn't seek re-election next year.
Idiots are easily manipulated. They are useful pawns, and that's about it. Consider the stooges of the fledgling movement "Occupy Wall Street." These useful idiots are clamoring for social justice, as if they don't have enough of that already.
Beware politicians whose legislation bears a grandiose title. You can be certain their schemes will accomplish the opposite of their purported intent. Such is the case with the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law one year ago today. The massive 2,300-page tome - commonly known as Dodd-Frank - promised to fix the financial system, streamline regulation and end bailouts. Like so much of President Obama's legislative achievements, this bill promised much, delivered little and cost a great deal.
Which two have done more to improve your life - Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs, or Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi? Some people, in their pursuit of profit, benefit their fellow humans by creating new or better goods and services, and then by employing others. We call such people entrepreneurs and productive workers. Others are parasites who suck the blood and energy away from the productive. Such people are most often found in government.
President Obama's 2012 budget presentation echoed his constant complaint of the huge deficit he inherited from President George W. Bush and the Republicans ("Obama aims to pare deficit and spare entitlements," Page 1, Thursday). It is past time to set the record straight.
Here we go again. Under President George W. Bush, the Republicans tried to warn us of the pending financial crisis when hearings were held, but they were quickly shot down by congressional Democrats, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and Reps. Barney Frank and Maxine Waters.
