Saturday, October 04, 2008
The Fallacy of Voluntary Regulations and Oversight
This New York Times article on the SEC and the failure of voluntary regulations pretty much shows one of the causes of the current financial crisis. I'm guessing that one day the Bush Administration will be defined by the phrase "the fallacy of voluntary regulations and the social effects they create". Leonard D. Bole's letter to the SEC is here. It's not just the SEC though. The Bushie's have pretty much instituted "voluntary regulations" and "voluntary oversight" throughout the Federal government. There will likely be a swing to the opposite extreme now, as people will demand strict oversight and regulation of various industries. At best, we can hope for something moderate, though, if there's no money to spend, there will be no need for any regulations.
The Pentagon is a mess - procurement and weapons development are broken. DARPA was one of the more accountable agencies within the Pentagon, and they got their budget cut for saving money and holding grant awardees to their schedules, or else. Supposedly, armies become more efficient in times of war as bureacracies are pared down, but this doesn't seem to apply this time. Is this "Son of Vietnam"? Are our "best" weapons crap like the Sparrows were in Vietnam? Well, we are certainly seeing plenty of field testing. Hopefully, the procurement people are placed in the field and get to use the weapons they purchase. (Ha!, what a jape!)
The Pentagon is a mess - procurement and weapons development are broken. DARPA was one of the more accountable agencies within the Pentagon, and they got their budget cut for saving money and holding grant awardees to their schedules, or else. Supposedly, armies become more efficient in times of war as bureacracies are pared down, but this doesn't seem to apply this time. Is this "Son of Vietnam"? Are our "best" weapons crap like the Sparrows were in Vietnam? Well, we are certainly seeing plenty of field testing. Hopefully, the procurement people are placed in the field and get to use the weapons they purchase. (Ha!, what a jape!)
Labels: Blame to go around
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Looks like when Dubya was doing his darndest to divert public Defense money for Iraq into the pockets of his private cronies (Halliburton etc) he took his eye off domestic financial governance. Then again Economics for Dummies was a little difficult for one.
Roll-on Obama.
Pete
Roll-on Obama.
Pete
If he ever governed at all! There will likely be some historians getting tenure writing about his Presidency for some time. It will be interesting to see how many paint him in any sort of positive light.
So much for being a C student at Yale.Too bad he wasn't bright enough to choose people smarter than himself, or flexible enough to change his mind when the situation warranted it and new information came in. After all, these are the same people who wanted the CIA to prove to them what they already knew. They weren't interested in facts because their minds were already made up. What a shame.
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So much for being a C student at Yale.Too bad he wasn't bright enough to choose people smarter than himself, or flexible enough to change his mind when the situation warranted it and new information came in. After all, these are the same people who wanted the CIA to prove to them what they already knew. They weren't interested in facts because their minds were already made up. What a shame.
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