It is getting difficult to find this picture anymore:

From a press conference held on June 3, 2003 — Pictured are Bush Administration officials from four of the five government agencies responsible for financial supervision using tree shears (the fifth representative, James Gilleran of the Office of Thrift Supervision is wielding a chainsaw), to symbolically destroy financial regulation.

If you plan to vote, please remember that this reckless deregulation, and the current bailout, has been brought to you by the new Republican par-tay. This started with the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by current McCain economic adviser and former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm. Take a moment to read this excellent US NEWS piece on the SEC, Enron & the last battle over deregulation:

But here’s the howler: The number of enforcement personnel, the people who go after the financial engineers, is expected to decline. That’s right. Despite the trillion-dollar meltdown now underway, the number of SEC enforcement personnel will decline from 1,209 this year to 1,177 in 2009. In all, the SEC expects to have 3,771 employees next year. For comparison, the Smithsonian Institution budget for 2009 includes funding for 4,324 employees.

That’s not meant as a slap at the Smithsonian. It houses a myriad of the nation’s most treasured objects. But the SEC actually guards the nation’s treasure. And yet, Congress treats it like a bastard stepchild. Indeed, Congress doles out more than five times as much money for corn subsidies ($4.9 billion in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available) as it does for the SEC.

 

Tags: deregulation, Bush, Credit+Crisis, JP+Oliva

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