Wherein Timothy Geithner Auditions for The Godfather

I guess the Obama Administration has completely given up on any pretense of trying to provide a safety net for the financial sector of the American economy.

Instead, the Administration has now set an achievable goal for itself:  Destroying financial firms quickly and without mercy.

The finance-reform bill Congress is likely to pass this summer won't eliminate the risk of failure for financial firms, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says in an interview on Friday's Morning Edition.

But the bill means that, when firms get into trouble in the future, "we won't give them a second chance," he tells NPR's Renee Montagne. "We will dismember them, put them out of existence."

It must be satisfying for the Community-Organizer-in-Chief and his administration to finally have a goal they can put their whole heart and soul into.

Comments

[Mike Landfair]

But, Gina, don't you think we should have let them fail in the first place rather than go into more debt to save them?

[Gina Cobb]

I don't think the government should be "bailing out" private firms, but Geithner is going way beyond that:

When firms get into trouble in the future, he isn't just proposing to let them fail. "We won't give them a second chance," he tells NPR's Renee Montagne. "We will dismember them, put them out of existence."

What does that mean? If anyone in the Obama administration concludes that a business is "in trouble" they can "put them out of existence" and "dismember them."

That's too much power in Washington. Way too much. Dictatorial-level power.

Like any other heavy-handed law, it should certainly encourage lots of campaign contributions to the current president from nervous officers of financial firms.

And those who don't play the game will find out quickly what it means to be dismembered.

[profound thinker]

Remember what should be remembered, and forget what should be forgotten.Alter what is changeable, and accept what is mutable.

[Mike Landfair]

Re: If anyone in the Obama administration concludes that a business is "in trouble" they can "put them out of existence" and "dismember them."

That's a lot of power to wield and assumes that one can see the future perfectly. By that standard I perceive the Obama thugocracy to be "in trouble." Come November we have the power to "put them out of existence."