Michael Barone writes up what the GOP should be thinking of in the upcoming debate over banking reform:

The big media tends to portray Republicans as opposed to all financial regulation. But every intelligent person knows that some form of financial regulation is necessary. And the 2008 financial collapse shows we need smarter regulation that will discourage, not encourage, government bailouts of Wall Street.

Republicans have good policy and political reasons to argue not for weaker regulation but for tougher regulation of Wall Street firms. They should oppose resolution authority that helps the big firms and, while they’re at it, seek to increase the capital requirements on such firms that are left vague in the Dodd bill. Democrats have taken the side of Wall Street. Republicans should stand up for Main Street — and taxpayers — instead.

It is a myth – but a durable one – that the GOP is the party of big business and/or bankers. It used to be so, but mostly since Goldwater and definitely since Reagan, big business types really haven’t found a home in the GOP – but they have found a home in the Democrat party.

There are two reasons for this: one, the leaders of big business tend to be educated at the same elite universities as the leaders of liberalism; they are steeped in the same worldview as the left. Two, the leaders of big business prefer to cut deals with big government rather than, say, make the best product or do a good overall job.

But the debate over banking reform will bring out the class war rhetoric from the Democrats – we GOPers will be cast as defenders of big business by Democrats who are raking in donations from same. The proposed reforms of the Democrats will thus be long on anti-business rhetoric, short on anything which might actually make big business more responsive to the needs of the American people.

And there in lies our big chance to break out of the liberal parameters of the debate. We can craft a reform message which attacks the actual problems – which actually will force big business to work for the benefit of America, rather than for the benefit of the corporate bosses and their kept politicians in the Democrat party.

Lots of things can be done, but I think the key element of a conservative reform of banking – or a conservative reform of any big business activity – is to enforce the notion that if you’re going to make piles of money, you’d better do so by creating something useful. Banking is vital in a modern, free market economy – it is the necessary mechanism for distributing capital around the economy. Our job is to ensure that this capital is directed towards wealth-creation, rather than merely piling up cash and awarding big bonuses to a select few.

It is an absurdity, for instance, that we would allow an investment firm to cook up screwball things like credit default swaps. Its nice for bankers because they can make money if an investment works, or goes south – but it doesn’t actually do anything to create wealth…and thus it doesn’t do anything to create jobs. Conservative reform would be to put an end to such scams (which have played such a huge role in our current economic crisis) and encourage wiser use of money.

This sort of reform would allow us to war on the bankers who have made such a hash of things while preventing us from falling in to a Statist model which would merely substitute government for corporate idiots in the mismanagement of capital. It would also, of course, put us on the side of the people – not “the people” in Democrat terms, which is just a mythical prop in a leftist morality play, but the real people – the people who do the work of this nation and who will astound the world if just given the chance to create wealth unfettered.

Interesting poll:

Americans are now pretty evenly divided about whether they would rather have Barack Obama or George W. Bush in the White House. 48% prefer Obama while 46% say they would rather have the old President back.

Meanwhile, the Ronulans will love this:

Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is – virtually dead even.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

The bloom is clearly off the rose…

I’d like to think that Crist has put this issue to bed – unless he’s a bald-faced liar, he has. And yet, the rumors that he’ll bolt the GOP and run as an independent just won’t die:

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist dodged another question Wednesday about whether he would run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, the Associated Press reports. The question referenced this story in today’s Wall Street Journal on how some of his advisers are pushing Crist to abandon his lagging Republican primary campaign.

Others are now wondering: How could Crist make such a move after his manager campaign, Eric Eikenberg, so vehemently denied it just last week. Eikenberg’s statement last week included this line: “To put these rumors to rest once and for all, as we have said countless times before, Governor Crist is running for the United States Senate as a Republican. He will not run as an Independent or as a No Party Affiliation.”

Which would, once again, seem to put an end on it for this story – but it keeps going and going and going. It could be, of course, that Democrats are keeping the drumbeat up in order to split the GOP vote – which is about the only way the Democrats could win in Florida this year.

Be that as it may, it is clearly decision time for Crist – his best move is to bow out gracefully and either try again another year, or wait for a Cabinet post in President Pal…errmmm…I mean, a Cabinet post in the next Republican Administration. Keeping at this forlorn race just hurts Crist’s chances elsewhere – while running as an Independent would mean the end of his career.

Its just as bad as you thought:

f you listen to certain politicians and talking heads you might get the impression that the federal fiscal sky is falling. Unfortunately, unlike Chicken Little, they may be right.

The Treasury Department recently issued the 2009 financial report of the United States government. Whereas there is lots of talk in Congress and in the press about the federal budget, the annual report was released to near silence. That’s too bad, not only because the annual report is untainted by creative accounting but also because its message is too important to ignore.

That message is that the sky is indeed falling…

Do read the linked article – but to nutshell it, our government is in the hole by at least $57.4 trillion dollars. If we don’t change course, then mere interest on government debt – just the interest! – will eat up 10% of GDP by 2040. That might seem like a long way off, but its when my grand-daughter will be trying to make a living and, presumptively, raise a family.

I’m not going to sit still for this – I’m not about to allow liberals in 2010 to steal the future of 2040. Revolutionary change is necessary, and it will be accomplished.

A hate-filled, kook-leftist, of course:

As you may suspect, crashtheteaparty.org was not created by a Republican or an independent, but instead by someone with a red-tinted sickle to grind. In this instance, the suspect appears to be a conspiratorial 36-year-old from the Pacific Northwest named Jason Levin. He started promoting the site on April 8 on his personal Twitter account, but failed to do an adequate job of covering up his personal information when he registered the domain five days earlier. He later attempted to cover his tracks, but the original information was quickly disseminated around the internet by those who wondered who was behind the group…

…Levin…is a middle school technology teacher who isn’t impressed by his students or his current job. He promotes a Firefighters for 911 truth site, which establishes his own conspiratorial bona fides as a truther. He indulges in his dislike of Republicans in general and in Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck in particular. Predictably, he doesn’t like Fox News. Other tweets on Mr. Levin’s page indicate that he is pro-ObamaCare and loves Keith Olbermann. Interestingly enough, he claims to not be a Democrat — presumably, his views are further to the left.

This is the core opposition, boys and girls – absolute screwball, nutcase leftists. Used to not be like this. Our toughest fights actually used to be with people like retiring Congresscritter Stupak. But back in 2003, Democrat leaders, gulled by Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, allowed the insane to have a seat the table, and here we are.

They are hoping to “expose” us – what will actually happen is we’ll expose them. I’m going to one of the Tax Day TEA Parties, myself, and I will be armed with my video camera…we will find any of these idiots who show up and we will expose them for what they are. Be sure to do the same, yourself – do not attend a TEA Party without a means of recording what happened.

As we roll towards November and things stubbornly refuse to get better for the Democrats, we can expect ever more desperate tactics from the left. Brace yourself for it – and keep a clear eye on the goal. Don’t get mad – get to the polls.

A junk bond rally:

Record U.S. junk bond sales and a rally in leveraged loans are chipping away at the $1.2 trillion wall of maturing debt that’s threatened to cause a surge in defaults…

…Market watchers from Fridson to Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategist Oleg Melentyev to Robert Khuzami, the director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, have used the term “maturity wall” to describe the wave of bonds that need to be refinanced in coming years…

To translate from the Banksterese: companies are up against a wall of debt which is coming due in 2010 and 2011. This debt will cause a lot of companies to fail – so, they need to pay off the debt. Except they can’t – so, they’re selling junk bonds to refinance it.

They are refinancing low interest debt with high interest debt.

Its like a credit card balance transfer for idiots. Or, in this case, for the idiots who run our larger corporations and are only hoping they can kick the can down the road until they get their golden parachute.

All of this will be fine – if the economy goes on a massive boom and allows these companies to earn enough money to not only keep up with current expenses but also provide the massive amounts of money that will be needed to redeem these bonds at maturity. And if the economy doesn’t go on a rampage?

Then, they’re screwed. Won’t be able to redeem – will have to either refinance at an even higher rate, or go belly up.

This is the sort of thing I see which convinces me that we’re not in a recovery. We are in a speculative bubble fueled by easy money from the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury – as well as central banks around the world. Heard today that China will post 11.7% growth – its either a complete fraud (ie, made up numbers by Chinese apparatchiks who don’t want to bear ill tidings to the Central Committee), or a massively overheating economy which cannot sustain itself. Its like that all over the world – growth fueled by funny money.

Until the proof comes crashing down ’round our ears, I’ll have no way to show the boosters of this that they’re fools. You can never convince a speculator that he’s got it wrong until he’s selling apples on the street corner, as it were. But this cannot go on – at some point, the system will hit overload and the crash will be spectacular. Today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year – one day, certain, it will happen.

I tend to think that once we get in to the junk bond rally phase, we’re probably not too far off the crash.

This one being the story that Red States have higher rates of abortion:

What about Koppelman’s arguments about culture, contraception, and sex education? Well, once again the data clearly show that Koppleman is incorrect. Data obtained from the Alan Guttmacher Institute shows that the 31 states that were won by George W. Bush in the 2004 election had an average abortion rate of about 12 abortions per thousand women of childbearing age. The 19 states that John Kerry won had an average abortion rate of over 20. The results were similar when data from the Centers for Disease Control was used.

Furthermore, the five states where John McCain received the highest percentage of votes in 2008 had an average abortion rate of 6.9. The five states where Barack Obama received the highest percentage of votes in 2008 had an average abortion rate of 22.6. Overall, it seems clear that politically conservative states have, on average, lower abortion rates, than their more liberal counterparts.

One of the recent pro-abortion arguments is that pro-abortion policies lower abortion rates (I know: its stupid on its face, but work with me here – we’re dealing with liberal “thinking”). By pouring out money for contraception, sex education and such, liberals claim that people then have less recourse to abortion – and then some liberals cooked the statistical books until they got the answer they desired.

This is a common tactic on the left – making stuff up and then dressing it up as a study in order to advance a bit of leftist ideology. Global warming got on like this, too.

Slander is pretty much all they’ve got over on the left side of the aisle. Time has passed them by, the truth is against them…like all ruling classes losing power, they are fighting a desperate, rear-guard action against revolutionary change.

It won’t work – we’ll be kicking them out. Soon.

But only if you’re Moslem:

SCOTLAND YARD has bowed to Islamic sensitivities and accepted that Muslims are entitled to throw shoes in ritual protest — which could have the unintended consequence of politicians or the police being hit.

News of the concession by the Metropolitan police has come to light amid a series of trials of more than 70 mostly Muslim demonstrators who were charged with violent disorder after last year’s Gaza protests outside the Israeli embassy in London.

Miserable, gutless cowards. Churchill is spinning in his grave.

Things are just booming out there, let me tell ya:

Perhaps the best remedy for sky-high office vacancy in Las Vegas should come in the form of a steel wrecking ball.

Like the residential and retail markets, the office market is overbuilt, with nearly 50 million square feet of inventory and a vacancy rate of 23.4 percent in the first quarter, compared with 19.6 percent vacancy a year ago, Las Vegas-based business advisory firm Applied Analysis reported…

…”In the coming months, we expect commercial real estate prices to decline further and we’re not seeing any true recovery until the end of the year to early next year,” Hillis said…

One of the things I get to see in my daily commute is a sign – one of those “putting America to work” signs with the thinly disguised Obama campaign logo. Been there for the better part of a year – still haven’t seen the work we’re supposed to be put to. Maybe Barry can have us all working at imploding building and plowing Las Vegas under? Last one in town take down the Obama sign?

On a more serious note, do read in to the stories on the economy – you’ll find the common thing being not so much gain, as not losing quite as fast as we were before. This is what is driving things like the stock market – cleverly written stories which seem to report good news and thus fool the gullible. The gullible seeming to be heavily represented by stock market investors, these days. Can’t really blame them – its all they know. They don’t know how to create wealth and if the stock market doesn’t work, they’re sunk.

Victor Davis Hanson has an interesting article over at Pajamas Media – a tour, as it were, through recession-plagued California. Rich, poor and middle class areas are surveyed. The strongest impression I took away from it is of a weak people kept afloat by massive government spending – but, now, the government is broke. Eventually, they checks will stop coming – and, what then?

Then, boys and girls, we’re going to find out who the real Americans are. Who has retained the spirit which founded and built this nation, and who we’ll be ashamed to call our fellow countrymen.

So much for people liking it after its passed:

Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of U.S. voters who strongly favor repeal.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters nationwide finds 38% still oppose repeal, including 32% who strongly oppose it.

We are not, of course, a nation governed by polls. The people get to make their statement every other year in national politics and the results of November, 2008 will hold true until this November, regardless of how much change there is in the national political dynamic. That said, it is clear that Democrats have made an error – a big error. The only question remaining: is it a fatal error?

Only time can really answer that question, but we can see the outline of things. Clearly, the Obama theory that people would fall in love with it once passed has proven false. Far from fading away, the outrage over the manner in which ObamaCare was passed continue to fuel anti-liberal enthusiasm. Republicans get ever more white-hot in their passion, Independents swing ever more strongly towards the GOP and the TEA Party continues to grow and capture the imagination of the American people.

All the ingredients exist for a political tsunami to sweep away the old ways of doing things. We’ll just have to see if the GOP comes up with the leaders and the plans to make it happen.