McMahon: Oversight
Apr 26, 2010, 8:20 PM | Updated: Jun 5, 2012, 3:27 am
Everybody has seen Jimmy Stewart’s Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Remember who the villain was? The banker! The old guy who wanted to foreclose on everyone. He was the rich, powerful character that was indifferent to the townsfolk in trouble.
Wait a minute. That’s the image of some bankers now – and most of Wall Street. But is that the kind of person I want holding my family’s money? Is that who I’m going to trust with my investments? Yes, as long as someone is watching them.
Just as there are people who oversee our food & medicines, there are supposed to be professionals who watch the finance industries for skullduggery. Of course, that’s supposed to be the SEC but lately they’ve been watching videos of Jenna Jamison doing what Goldman-Sachs has been getting away with for years.
So the president wants a consumer protection agency to be created. His critics believe that free enterprise economics will police itself – that business must operate with total freedom. And I’ll be more comfortable if I know someone is regulating just how far that freedom should go.
