With the release of Sen. Dodd’s (D-CT) proposed financial sector re-regulation we are on the path to some small steps to rein in our out of control banking system. The bill has some good features (forgive me that I have not had time to read the entire thing yet) though it is not quite as strong as many of my fellow DFH would like.

There is going to be a huge focus on the provisions for the consumer protection agency, which in the Dodd bill is under the auspices of the Federal Reserve. This is a really bad idea given the size of this department compared to the size of the Fed, but there is some hope that it will be made into an independent agency. Putting under the Fed was a move to try to entice Republicans. At this point there are no Republicans in support of this bill so it might change. Then again, it might not.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Perhaps more important to the systemic health of the economy is the requirement of hedge funds with more than $100 million in assets register with regulators. This is a good first step, since knowing who is managing how much money is a prerequisite for policing the financial markets.

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On the Limits of Tax-Exempt Status

[an extrapolation on current events, in personal narrative form]

Some of you know that a few weeks ago my hubby and I flew out to Oklahoma to help get Mom-in-law moved into assisted living due to some issues with failing eyesight, short-term memory non-existence and refusal to use a walker (resulting in her falling down a lot). Hubby's family were lifelong Presbyterians by faith, his Mom and Dad were both Elders in the tiny church behind their house. My Dad returned to his family's association with the Presbyterian church after retiring from the Navy, following some lengthy investigation of various denominations. My husband and I attended the same Presbyterian church as teenagers and young adults, though our attendance at any church over recent years has been reserved to weddings and funerals.

Now, the thing about protestantism is that it's got a denomination for whatever flavor of natural inclination a person's got. If your nature is parliamentarian nit-picking and resolution by argument, Presbyterianism is your cup of tea. If your nature is lightning-like bliss and gibberish, a Pentecostal or other "holy roller" denomination will serve. If you're a liberal-minded type fond of social issues, some of the reformed orthodox denominations will be satisfying. And if you're a hard right WingNut type Republican Talibangelist harboring too much leftover racism, the SBC [Southern Baptist Conference] churches are made to order.

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Thus the comparison between the Great Depression and the current Great Recession falls flat, because the popular upheavals of the 1930s are only in evidence today among the least helpful segments of the population. This of course is a major reason why we can expect no FDR-like President to save us from the...economic collapse...

...During the 1930s...intellectual figures such as John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, Kenneth Burke, and Richard Wright were actual socialists and not just mere liberals offering occasional plugs for John Kerry.

Another prominent socialist, albeit a bit later than the Depression, was Albert Einstein. He was an all around brilliant man, someone whom I admire greatly. And he wisely said this, although today it would probably be considered way too radical for anyone respectable to utter:

[I am] a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.

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Democrats attach student aid legislation to health care bill in hopes of winning a simple majority with reconciliation.

The rise of the Tea Party movement has been quite fast. In less than a year they have (with the help of Fox News and Freedom Works) become a force that many Republicans feel they need to court in order to win in November of the this year. But even with the organization and promotion help they received, there had to be a group that could be molded and promoted in the first place.

There is a lot of talk about the apparent racist aspect of the Tea Party participants. However if there was that big and cohesive a racist feeling in the nation, then various white power groups would have been a major force long before this. Instead of being a motivating factor I think that racism is a side symptom which Progressives are so tuned in to seeing that it obscures what might be the more functional roots of this movement.

"Originally posted at The Seminal

Let’s take a look at who the Tea Party members are. It is true they are overwhelmingly white, but they are also overwhelmingly male, and have attended college. They also tend to be from more rural parts of the nation and skew older. Basically, you can describe them as the conservative wing of the Baby Boomers.

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