Sensible fellow or nut?
The author of the Almanac of American Politics is Michael Barone. In a recent piece he is scathingly critical of the Obama administration and says he doesn’t like the financial reform legislation currently before Congress for a variety of reasons:
At the top of the list is the $50 billion fund that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation could use to pay off creditors of firms identified as systemically risky — i.e., “too big to fail.” “The Dodd bill,” writes Rep. Brad Sherman (D., Calif.), “has unlimited executive bailout authority. That’s something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn’t dare ask for.” Politically connected creditors would have every reason to assume they’d get favorable treatment. The Dodd bill specifically authorizes the FDIC to treat “creditors similarly situated” differently.
Second, as former Bush administration economist Larry Lindsey points out, the Dodd bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to “too big to fail” firms. CEOs might want to have receipts for their contributions to Sen. Charles Schumer and the Obama campaign in hand when they apply.
Lindsey ticks off other special favors. “Labor gets ‘proxy access’ to bring its agenda items before shareholders as well as annual ‘say on pay’ for executives. Consumer activists get a brand-new agency funded directly out of the seniorage the Fed earns. No oversight by the Federal Reserve Board or by Congress on how the money is spent.”
Nonsense. Barone is probably just a “classic American know-nothing populist — nativist, isolationist, paranoid.” Yeah, that must be it.