Greenspan: Fed isn't a 'magical piggy bank'
My take on this article is that Greenspan is asking that an agency be set up to handle situations like the home mortgage meltdown, but I don't get it. The way I see it these meltdowns come from a failure by the government to regulate these industries in the public interest.
I see 4 dollar a gallon gas as a failure of the government to see and recognize oil as a commodity that needs to be regulated to protect the public interest, not big oils interest. The government of America has allowed America to be increasingly dependent on foreign oil, to the point now where it will take 10 years to correct it. If the government had done its job by recognizing our growing dependence on foreign oil they could have regulated the industry to energy resources available domestically. That didn't happen, and I don't think it was a accident, I think the current government drove us into this ditch, for the benefit of the oil industry.
I see the mortgage meltdown pretty much the same way, When the government deregulated the banking industry, the banks and the mortgage companies, pretty much got richer, with the lower regulations, and everybody was happy as long a things are going good. But, regulations are to protect the public interest when thing go bad. Now that things are bad and the industry has gotten all their commissions the taxpayer is left to pay up.
In general I see many of the problems facing our country today, are caused by the governments failure to determine what needs to regulated in the public interest, and setting policies and regulations to protect the publics interest. Today our country's oil policy was set behind the closed doors of Dick Cheney's office, but it is not hard to see that the oil industry came out the winner at the expense of the public interest. Is there anyone in the American government who really understands that there is a difference between public interest and big oil or big banks, If there is I'm not seeing it.
