Should Treasury Secretary Get More Power?

[creditcardfree]

In the news today: The treasury secretary is asking for more power to be able to 'take control' of failing firms before they could impact the economy in a negative way.

What do you think? Good idea or bad?

[sweeps]

I voted both good and bad idea.

[thekid]

I voted both good and bad idea.

lol. excellent.

[poundwise]

I voted both good and bad idea.

You could be in Congress. (Or maybe even Treasury Secretary.)

[sweeps]

Hey, it wasn't my idea to provide checkboxes instead of radio buttons.

[creditcardfree]

Apparently, you don't like my poll?!

Personally, I'm undecided and would vote good and bad, too. There's just too many factors to know probably.

I don't want government to have too much power, but does Congress know what they are doing? Do they have experience in macro economics? Could this economy been prevented, if there were more oversight, or laws on risky investments?

I don't know the answers...just wanted to see what others thought.

[kork13]

I don't want government to have too much power, but does Congress know what they are doing? Do they have experience in macro economics? Could this economy been prevented, if there were more oversight, or laws on risky investments?

Very good points, and my thoughts exactly. Does Congress have any macro econ experience / know what it's doing? HECK NO! So in that, sure... Having someone who's at least somewhat capable with greater control would be great. However, I am also distrusting of providing a single politically-entwined person with any significant amount of control over any given area of influence (and here I sit, with a single man as my commander-in-chief... ). At least with the Congress, it takes the convincing of alot more people to effect any significantly stupid measure.


Actually, on second thought, maybe this one-man thing is better... As the all-wise "demotivational poster" teaches, "None of us is as dumb as All of us."

[maat55]

I voted no, freedom has its good and bad aspects. I'll take any bad aspects that comes with freedom.

I believe the government is fundamentally flawed, it needs to be extremely limited, IMO.

[GREENBACK]

I think the answer might lie in the 80% publicly owned AIG disaster that has unfolded. Politicians are expressing shock at the bonuses being paid and they want us to actually believe that they didn't know that a banking/insurance giant like that wouldn't pay a few bonuses when It's a very common practice. It's a big political game and that's one of the many problems with giving gov't control over these things.

Even if the treasury secretary has good intentions you inevitably end up with his political cronies trying to use this for political advantage and nothing gets accomplished. They have not proven at all how taking control will actually make these companies better from what I've seen.Are Washington politico's actually smarter than any of these bank CEO's? If they are, they're certainly in the wrong line of work.

[sweeps]

I believe the government is fundamentally flawed, it needs to be extremely limited, IMO.

I think one could argue that a megacorporation with enough leverage to take down the largest economy in the world is fundamentally flawed and needs to be extremely limited.

[creditcardfree]

I think one could argue that a megacorporation with enough leverage to take down the largest economy in the world is fundamentally flawed and needs to be extremely limited.

I also agree with this, too.

[GREENBACK]

I think one could argue that a megacorporation with enough leverage to take down the largest economy in the world is fundamentally flawed and needs to be extremely limited.

I don't know if we really want them "extremely limited". Do we want them to barely turn a profit under gov't control. What will their leadership be like if this is the case. Do we want Citigroup and Bank of America extremely limited? These are world giants that are a major reason that we were and still are the best economic system in the world. Bad decisions have been made on many fronts from the gov't as well as the private sector but it's not time to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Gov't should be extremely limited because they don't(absolutely don't) have the ability to bring these companies back to anything approaching what they historically were. The gov't idea is great if we're willing to accept mediocrity at best. The flaw with gov't control is lack of knowledge and the politics associated with making good buisness decisions while pandering to those who can keep you and your party in control.