Bank Robbers Should Ask Rep. Issa to Outlaw Cameras in Banks

Since Rep. Issa is asking banksters (and other businesses (which regulations they don't like, it would be only fair if he asked the same of criminals who use tools other than financial instruments to steal money.

Shall we visit the 1920s? The Harding Administration removed almost all control on banks and stock brokerages. Within nine years, the stock market collapsed and the bank runs began. The Hoover Administration did little more than wring its hands for the next 3-1/2 years and the Great Depression was well underway.

Skip to the 1980s: Savings and Loans were deregulated in 1982. S&Ls immediately widened their business into all sorts of financial areas. Within four years, S&Ls started going under and in a few years, it was a tidal wave of S&L failures. The so-called "peace dividend" following the fall of the Berlin Wall went entirely towards cleaning up the S&L mess.

Now jump to 1999. The banksters favorite senator, Phil Gramm, who arguably worked more for the banks than his home state, pushed through nearly complete banking deregulation, along with preempting state regulation of federally chartered banks. The entity that was supposed to oversee federally chartered banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, pretty much limited its job to approving the location of new bank branches. In eight years, the banks began getting into trouble and within a year after that, the banking system damn near froze up. If George Bush hadn't bucked his party's ideology, we'd be in the midst of another depression.

Now a rational person, when advised of the foregoing, might think that there would be no question that banking regulation is necessary to prevent the greedy foolishness of the banksters from again trashing the economy. But remember, we're talking about Republicans! Deregulation is an ideology to them and you don't confront ideology with things like "facts".

I don't know Rep. Issa. But from what I've read, he is just another goddamned right-wing true believer who cares more about his party's ideological purity than he does about what is best for this nation.

Which is no shock, because that is what defines a Republican in this age.