TheHill.com – “Senators held stock in bailed-out banks”

Interesting article on TheHill.com site titled “Senators held stock in bailed-out banks.”

Guess who’s name is on this list?  Connecticut Senator Chris “Countrywide” Dodd. Guess who is wanting an extension on his deadline to file these disclosure reports? Yeah, Senator Chris Dodd and two other Democrat Senators (Mark Warner D-VA, and Jeff Merkley D-OR).

This is interesting:

“Like Corker and Bennett, three Democrats sitting on the panel asked for extensions in filing their financial disclosure reports. Freshmen Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) along with the committee’s chairman, Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), are expected to file their reports in August.”

And this part:

“Senators who oversee the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package held stocks in many of the banks bailed out towards the end of last year, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday.

According to the reports detailing senators’ finances in 2008, nearly half of the members of the Senate Banking Committee had holdings in financial institutions that have taken funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The panel has jurisdiction over the bailout fund and other relief efforts directed by federal regulators to save the nation’s financial system.”

Now in fairness to them all, I have mixed feelings on whether or not such folks should be allowed to invest in such companies. Preexisting investments versus those bought after they were on the committee?Did they sell them and when?

Let’s face reality, this stuff clearly gets real dicey when we’re talking about politicians that sit in positions of great power on Congressional panel with far reaching banking oversight. It gets even more dicey when it appears a good chunk of the responsibility for this economic mess tends to wind it’s way back to some of these folks…Senator Dodd is an excellent example.

I also find it interesting (disturbing is a better word) when the administration and the US Congress seem very willing to spend money like it grows on trees, scare us all to death about our futures (aka distraction), and then propose massively expensive fixes to a problem they have yet to fully detail what went wrong and where. Guess you’re not too eager to do that when you know the trails will often wind up at your own doorstep eh?

How about we find out what went wrong before we try fixing a problem? Or has all common sense just went bye bye in Washington…sort of like real journalism has in that town?

More government bureaucracy and regulations are some of the proposed fixes. There were tons of regulations in place, this mess still happened. I’d bet the problem is not a lack of regulation, but the lack of enforcement of existing regulations. The question to ask is more likely “why were these existing regulations NOT ENFORCED?”

The news media I remember from growing up would be all over Congress and their role in this mess. They would be asking this OBVIOUS QUESTIONS every day till some answers were obtained.  Today they’re mostly a fan club for their favorite politicians and attack dogs for their opponents. Some, like ABC,  are even doing full broadcasts (essentially a free infomercial) from the White House.

This stuff should deeply concern every American. Real journalism is dead anymore and we’re going to pay a huge price for it.