What Americans don't know is that the US is forsaking advice and a chance to emulate what works in other countries.
While condemning the system in the old Russia, we are emulating the new by transferring wealth to our own oligarchs.
We have already forsaken England's National Health Service model for a plan to further enrich incompetent private insurers while ignoring London's new rules to tax banker bonuses and more tightly.
In fact, financial reforms are being watered down as the new Business Week reports on pro-business Democrats who are systematically watering down reforms. Financial journalist Gary Weiss calls our attention to this fear:
"A failure wouldn't surprise frustrated lawmakers disappointed by the turn in Washington. "My greatest fear for the last year has been an economic collapse," says Representative Brad Miller (D-N.C), who sits on Frank's House Financial Services Committee. "My second greatest fear was that the economy would stabilize and the financial industry would have the clout to defeat the fundamental reforms that our nation desperately needs. My greatest fear seems less likely"but my second greatest fear seems more likely every day."
More matter of factly, the New York Times reports, "big questions loom: Will the economy stage a robust recovery or just muddle along? Will the stunning rally in the stock market last? As the debate rages over how to prevent future crises, will Washington impose tough new rules on banks? More important, will banks fundamentally change the way they do business, or simply carry on as before?"
What do you think? There is, unfortunately, no laws stopping banks from carrying on as before.
With the public distracted by Christmas, terrorists and the fight between Fox and Time Warner over cable revenues, the government continued its bailouts in late December with billions more pumped in to mortgage giants Freddy and Fannie (even as their execs walk away with millions)
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