Given this profit motive, many would say the role of government is to make sure that the market functions fairly and openly. It is the government that should be protecting the citizenry and market from unscrupulous behavior and punish those that break the rules and laws. Consider for a moment, the following Federal government agencies that are involved in the banking and financial areas (and SHOULD have been on alert for trouble):
- Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
- Federal Housing Authority (FHA)
- Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)
- Office Of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) - Recently melded into FHFA
- Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) - Recently melded into FHFA
- Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) - Recently melded into FHFA
- Fannie Mae
- Ginnie Mae
- Freddie Mac
- Federal Depository Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- Treasury Department
- Federal Reserve Board
- House Of Representatives Financial Services Committee
- House Of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee
- Senate Banking Committee
Probably hundreds of government agencies, all staffed or run by the political class, involving thousands of employees and no one, anywhere foresaw the worst economic downturn since the Depression. No one saw the bogus mortgage applications being approved. No one saw the bad housing backed securities flooding the market. No one saw the dangerously high levels of housing inventory being created. No one saw (or decided not to act) on the blatant accounting abuses within Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. No one saw the dangerous and risky assets on the books of many banks (failure of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?).
Thus, despite paying incredibly high levels of taxes for protection, the government and political class provided absolutely no protection against the deep recession that will affect ordinary Americans for years. The question begs, why pay taxes at all for this lack of service? And to add insult to injury, after not doing their job in overseeing the activities in the banking, mortgage and financial areas, the political class turned around and gave billions and billions of taxpayer dollars to the very banks that were involved in the risky business that ruined their firm's financials. Those banks should have been allowed to die for their risky behavior and those bankers and such that were involved in those risky housing and mortgage ventures should have been out of a job.
The analogy I would use is like buying a new car that does not work. Not only do you not get your money back for the car, you are assessed an additional fee to pay the engineers and mechanics who built the car that did not work. The car is government regulation and protection and the additional fee is the bailout money given to banks. Makes no sense. And, even more insult to injury. Most of the bailed out banks have paid back their loans shortly after receiving them, indicating they were really not in danger of failing as the political class claimed they were.
Thus, another glaring example of high taxes for low value, or in this case, no value, given the deep impacts of the recession. This is a perfect application of Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" that would remove politicians from committee and subcommittee posts when those committees and subcommittees do not meet minimal performance standards. Given that no one on any committee or subcommittee saw the worst economic downturn coming until it hit them in the face, it would be a no brainer to remove all of them from their seats under Step 34.
Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.
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