(I started this post about six months ago. Still relevant today. So much has happened since the Bank “bailout” that shows what a foolish move it was.)
Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2008, p. A1, A4,
At Moment of Truth, U.S. Forced Big Bankers To Blink
“As the meeting neared a close, each banker was handed a term sheet detailing how the government would take stakes valued at a combined $125 billion in their banks, and impose new restrictions over executive pay and dividend policies.
“The participants, among the nation’s best deal makers, were in a peculiar position. They weren’t allowed to negotiate. Mr. Paulson requested that each of them sign. It was for their own good and the good of the country, he said, according to a person in the room.”” Policy makers knew they were taking unprecedented steps. It would take years to disentangle banks from the federal government.”
If you think it doesn’t matter what they do to those wealthy, over-paid bankers then please consider this from John Adams:
[Adams] stopped one night at a tavern in Shrewsbury, about forty miles from Boston. ” . . . as I was cold and wet I sat down at a good fire in the bar-room to dry my great coat and saddle-bags till a fire could be made in my chamber. There presently came in, one after another, half a dozen, or half a score, substantial yeomen of the neighborhood, who, sitting down to the fire after lighting their pipes, began a lively conversation upon politics. As I believed I was unknown to all of them, I sat in total silence to hear them. One said, “The people of Boston are distracted.” Another answered, “No wonder the people of Boston are distracted; oppression will make wise men mad.” A third said,·”What would you say, if a fellow should come to your house and tell you he was come to take a list of your cattle that parliament might tax you for them at so much a head? And how should you feel, if he was to go and break open your barn, to take down your oxen, cows, horses, and sheep?·” “What should I say?” replied the first; “I would knock him on the head.” “Well,” said a fourth, “if parliament can take away Mr. Hancock’s wharf and Mr. Rowe’s wharf, they can take away your barn and my house.” After much more reasoning in this style, a fifth, who had as yet been silent, broke out, “Well, it is high time for us to rebel. We must rebel some time or other: and we had better rebel now than any time to come: if we put it off for ten or twenty years, and let them go on as they have begun, they will get a strong party among us, and plague us a great deal more than they can now. As yet, they have but a small party on their side.” (John Adams, David McCullough, p. 74)
If you think your business is safe from government take over, think again. Ever wondered what it would be like working for the INS or the IRS? You may soon find out.
It is time for a peaceful, non-violent rebellion. Let’s hope that a violent one is never necessary.
