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House Democrats Undermine Entire Justification for Government Oversight of Commerce

December 7, 2012, 8:58 am

As I understand it, the justifications for strong and detailed government oversight of commerce rests on two ideas:

  • That government officials somehow have better incentives than private actors and are more likely to act in the interests of the general public
  • That a few carefully selected smart people standing on top of the system managing top down can impose better structural solutions for markets than will emerge organically.

Readers will know in advance that I think both of these statements are total crap, but I don't need to explain the reasons yet again because Democrats in the House of Representatives just created the most clear refutation possible by making Maxine Waters the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services committee (which has oversight for the most regulated industry in this country).

Ms. Waters fails both these tests.  She has a history of putting her own financial interests ahead of her oversight mission, and as far as the smart person standing at the top model, she has time and again demonstrated her complete lack of understanding of the very industry she regulates (well, either that or her entire career in Congress has actually been an elaborate bit of Dada-ist performance art).

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Category: Government
  • obloodyhell

    }}} she has time and again demonstrated her complete lack of understanding of the very industry she regulates (well, either that or her entire career in Congress has actually been an elaborate bit of Dada-ist performance art)

    Ummm... you mean to tell me there's an actual difference between those two things?

    I thought senseless idiocy and Dada-ism were one and the same...

    .

  • nehemiah

    Take heart, they could have named Georgia Congressman, the Honorable Hank Johnson. Perhaps they are saving him for the Intelligence Committee? I'm sure he could put a team together to determine actual number of people that could tip the island of Guam.

  • http://profiles.google.com/maruadventurer john mcginnis

    " or her entire career in Congress has actually been an elaborate bit of Dada-ist performance art)."

    Bingo!

  • http://devilish-details.blogspot.com/ mesaeconoguy

    Actually, Maxine Waters is far more qualified than Elizabeth Warren to serve in that area.

    Maxine has been spewing her ignorant vitriol at financial services firms for years, threatening to shake them down unless her husband’s IB firm got a piece of the action.

    Liz Warren is some fraud academic attempting to practice law without a license, and ruining the financial services industry in the process.

  • http://twitter.com/JoeGremlin joe

    Maybe all of congress is just performance art and as the country slides into the abyss all of the members will put on body stockings and spell out "th th th that's all folks" with their bodies in artistic poses. Unfortunately that would mean seeing them in body stockings. ay, mis ojos.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sandro.rettinger Sandro Rettinger

    That's because the real reason for all those Congressional committees is to have pretty sinecures to hand out to people, to reward them for their loyalty and time served. Head of House Financial Services? That's quite the plum.

  • obloodyhell

    BTW, I believe this is what's known as the "UN model of governance". You put the most ridiculously stupid entity in charge of something they have no business in charge of.

    Y'know, like making Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela the leading members of the UN Human Rights Commission.

    Max, Finance, same thing.

    If Hitler were still in around, the UN would put him in charge of an Anti-semitism Commission.