I read the Washington Post’s article regarding the plan to increase the power of the government, through the Department of the Treasury, to regulate or control larger segments of the financial market including hedge funds and similar instruments. Here is the quote from the article:
“Besides seizing a company outright, the document states, the Treasury Secretary could use a range of tools to prevent its collapse, such as guaranteeing losses, buying assets or taking a partial ownership stake. Such authority also would allow the government to break contracts, such as the agreements to pay $165 million in bonuses to employees of AIG’s most troubled unit”.
Several people on the right have accused the Obama Administration as having socialist tendencies and on some levels they are correct. However, it seems odd that no one has pointed out that this move is nothing short of a shift towards direct centralized governmental control of the financial private sector… in some corners, this would be called “Communism”.
A definition of Communism from Dictionary.com – “a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.” Wow, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We should be very careful that we don’t let fear drive policy to the point where we wake up and government is left with unbridled control of the financial markets.
The greed of a few, and the fears of many, may accomplish what 45 years of the Cold War was not able to achieve – transform private Capitalism into state Communism.
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.