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Washington Post: Taking Away the Banks' Control of the Fed is "Politicization"
Yes folks, according to the Washington Post, if the banks don't get to call the shots, then it's politicization. This is not a joke, that is exactly what the Washington Post said in an editorial about Senator Dodd's plan to have the Fed's district bank presidents approved by Congress rather than the banks in the district.
In Washington Post land if we let Pfizer and Merck appoint the directors of the Food and Drug Administration, then we can depoliticize the FDA. We can let Disney and Time-Warner appoint the directors of the Federal Communications Commission to depoliticize the FCC. It's an interesting conception of government.
--Dean Baker
COMMENTS (13)
Even when private corporations don't appoint directors of government agencies directly, they heavily influence the choices with massive lobbying power.
Rather than compare this power to what little discretion remains in the politics of democracy, WaPo turns it on its head, and paints it as moving from some kind of ideal self-regulation to radical government intrusion.
It's not that different from crime mobs of the past installing their own public officials, and until WaPo recognizes the crime-mob element with any reasonable investigative reporting, it will not be reported otherwise.
Posted by: izzatzo | November 11, 2009 7:31 AM
NPR's Renee Montagne and the WSJ's David Wessel pretty much conclude the same thing here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120300307
Leave it to DC and NYC Villagers parrot the same talking points after reading (and writing) the same editorials...
Posted by: Madchen Vapid | November 11, 2009 10:18 AM
Dean, Dean, Dean
you are lucky you know about the Fed maneuvers in the newspaper at all. I am sure the WAPO is kicking themselves for that disclosure.
Why just yesterday, I learned the Senate Budget Committee ( Conrad) created a Task Force on Government Performance and this brand new sub-group is about to turn over the power and authority of the Senate to a ( guess what) a new 'Commission" to make the hard budget decisions of government. ( you know the ones we have a congress to do)
Now these witnesses who spoke in favor were not elected to anything and the Commission members will not be elected to anything and they will merrily bankrupt the country in a heartbeat.
I did not read of this in the WAPO I saw it on c-span, the station that is watched by to few americans to matter.
I bet though these 'czars' and 'commissioners' are really foreign infiltrators because no american could do this to other americans. Right?
Posted by: Evergreen | November 11, 2009 11:50 AM
The editorial makes a bit more sense if you substitute "theoretically, slightly accountable to the public" for "politicization." It's also cute that the responsibility for AIG becoming "an institution whose collapse the world economy might not withstand" is solely AIG's.
Posted by: jairoi | November 11, 2009 12:51 PM
The hell with these halfway measures. The whole government is politicized. Appoint a king, do away with elections, and we eliminate the entire problem.
Posted by: alex | November 11, 2009 1:45 PM
If George Soros were to buy a controlling interest in, say, Bank of New York or PNC, he would then have inordinate influence over who becomes president of the regional Fed. He would then be able to influence the policy climate that affects the profitability of his investments.
Posted by: Frank T. | November 11, 2009 5:04 PM
The nomination of US Supreme Court justices is a politicized process, but the Supreme Court does a pretty good job of providing politically impartial judgments. I would rather trust the Federal Reserve's responsibilities to a group of Supreme Court justices than Bernanke's secret backroom deals with his Wall Street buddies.
Posted by: cyberbully | November 11, 2009 6:33 PM
Dude, it's the WaPo.
They are te suck. They publish Cohen and Krauthammer.
Fish, barrel, 30mm GAU-8 7 barreled rotary cannon.
Posted by: Matthew G. Saroff | November 11, 2009 8:22 PM
Dean, I'd love to hear your take on this piece from Money.com - http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/11/news/international/global_american_wages.breakingviews/index.htm
The article's title is "Americans are overpaid." Perhaps the publisher should have outsourced the article to cheaper (and hopefully more objective) writers in the Philippines.
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