Today, the federal government finalized the finance reform bill.  From all that I have spoken to that have read through it, it does little to actually correct the isses we experienced over the past 10 years.  Hooray!  One more large monster federal bill that has little benefit but lots of impact.

Two quotes in the attached article unnerved me.  The first was from Mr.  Dodd (senator of CT) where he said;

“No one will know until this is actually in place how it works.”

And the other was from Mr. Frank (representative of MA) where he is quoted;

“We’ve put in the hands of the president a very powerful set of tools for him to reassert American leadership in the world”

Why would any sane person want these quotes attributable to themselves?  Let’s see, the first one says that we just made 2,000 pages of laws and have no clue what the impact will be for the one industry that touches every single citizen.  Or, the 2,000 pages of laws that we all just passed are so general and vague that one can assume that they will be deployed in ways that are completely arbitrary, ways that we can never fully grasp.

The second quote jives with it perfectly.  Mr. Frank essentially celebrates the fact that our representatives, those that we rely on to check and balance the president, have given enormous power to one person.  And to make it all the more exhilarating, a president that has no economic background and has demonstrated a complete lack of respect for free markets.  Oh joy!

And one more thing, please read towards the bottom where they mention that 18,000 auto dealers (actually, the number is closer to 16,000 after the government forced some to close down)(also, at least 20% of them are selling government made cars) are exempt from the consumer protection portion of the law.  Keep in mind, the second largest expense for most citizens is an automobile with the majority of them financed.

Corrupt and stupid make for a very bad combination.  Worse, when it’s mixed with power.