MF Global Evidence of Misguided Regulation
One of the great ironies of Jon Corzine's disastrous, hugely leveraged bet on European debt is that when he was a senator and a governor, he was lecturing financial firms about the evils of exactly the same kind of leveraged bets. He was demanding a whole new regulatory system to wipe out leveraged risk. Again,
Here's a bit of an interview he gave in 2008, where he was describing how things would change after the TARP bailouts: "So you're going to see a lot less risk in the system... the system will morph into a different kind of risk-taking community -- it's going to need a thoughtful, very carefully crafted regulatory system. That's the long-run fix."
Well Gov. Corzine and his friends got their new regulatory system, and guess what? It allowed Banker Corzine to make all kinds of risky, highly leveraged bets. It shows once again how lawmakers and the well connected work hand in glove to protect each other. While the small bankers are getting killed by new financial regulations,
Corzine and his buddies at the well-connected firms got the special deals that kept them doing the same kind of stuff that got us into this mess. The hypocrisy of all this reeks to high heaven. And if it's lost on the liberal media and Corzine's friends in the White House, it's not lost on us.
So here it is, loud and clear: Liberal lawmakers like more regulations because they know the game is fixed in their favor. Corzine knew it. Chris Dodd knew, it when he wrote a $300 billion housing bill that benefited his buddy Angelo Mozilo. Maxine Waters knew it when she helped her husband's bank get Tarp money it didn't deserve. And Barney Frank knew it when he saw the lobbyists from big banks get their special deals in Dodd-Frank.
So the next time you hear a politician calling for a "thoughtful, new regulatory system" to fix things, remember how the last, new regulatory system worked out. And remember who benefited from it.