campaign financing aka beating a dead horse

[Leviathan]

1. I'm not saying we need "less" regulation. People have this stupid idea that regulation is some abstract entity. Liberals yell for more, conservatives yell for less. In some areas, I agree, we need more regulation and oversight from the state to ensure the market functions properly. For example, I think the capital requirements for banks, especially US ones, are absurdly low. I'm 100% for "more regulation" in terms of mandating heir T1 Capital requirements. But some regulations (aka everything surrounding Fannie and Freddie) have distorted the market and caused more problems than they have created. It isn't as simple as more regulation. That's like saying the solution to education is more laws (or less if you are conservative). It 100% on what the law is. So no, simply because i think some of your regulatory suggestions are poor does not mean I am for "less" regulation. I'm for more effective regulation.

2. "If they collapse they threaten the entire economy".

My point is today, that could be said for TONS of banks, not just large ones. And...not just American banks. If Deutschebank goes kaput tomorrow for example, we are going to have another crisis, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. When banks buy these derivatives or swaps, they hedge against each other. Lehman cause a calamity not because it was to big to fail, but because it froze the markets for MBS's, meaning that every other institution holding MBS's saw their value fall, and their balance sheets topple. This is why I take issue with the entire idea of to big to fail. It puts the focus on the banks when the focus should be on the securities. Lehman was not to big to fail. The Mortgage Backed Securities market was to big to fail, and unfortunately because of poor ratings, poor risk management, poor government policy, it did.

"You don't put all your eggs in that few baskets just like you wouldn't put all your investments in a handful of vehicles."

Exactly. But what you are failing to realize is the problem is that the BANKS put all their investments in a handful of vehicles. When you are as leveraged as most are (which higher cap reqs would help with) the slightest failure can be a cascade. Because of government housing policy, because of irrational exuberance about the market, because of horrible AAA ratings, because of poor risk controls at these banks...Mortgage Backed Securities became prominent enough at every major financial institution to tip them into insolvency. The problem was the market, and every bank entering this market to a degree that if the market failed, so would the bank. The market failed.

[Medius]

[Indy]

Um, the whales aren't supposed to be representing you in Congress?

[Medius]

[Indy]

Horrible analogy.

[Leviathan]

[Medius]

[The Comrade]

if you accept that money isn't speech, then those issues don't matter as it's then up to the government to decide where the line is. take free speech out of the equation and it stops having blurred ethical issues.

[Leviathan]

[The Comrade]