Impact of Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is asking a simple question: When did any of you bank regulators actually try a case against a bank? The implication is that the regulators are giving banks little slaps on the wrist, and Warren's expressed frustration is that the banks are ripping off the public, then invited to settle these egregious cases by merely paying a tiny portion of the ill-gotten goods. This is so refreshing to see a member of Congress demanding straight answers to simple questions in order to expose the all-too-cozy relationships between government agencies and banks.

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We the People proposed Amendment

This proposed Constitutional Amendment from We the People Amendment is loaded with good ideas:

Section 1. [Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights] The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable. Section 2. [Money is Not Free Speech] Federal, State, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.

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Scouts and Honor and Fair

My relationship with the Boy Scouts of America was not the most pleasant.  I was an oddity, to be sure.  I think I was at one time the only—only—second class scout to be a patrol leader. Second class.  For those who may not have been through the quasi-military organization, the…

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Iceland’s recipe: Let the banks fail

This article includes a video interview with the President of Iceland, who explains that part of Iceland's recovery from economic catastrophe was to allow the banks to fail.

In an impromptu interview with the Al Jazeera News Network’s Stephen Cole, Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson explains that his country was able to rebound from the worldwide financial crisis better than all other countries that faced the same problems, by doing just that, allowing the failing banks to go bankrupt.

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