Kick ’em When They Are Down!!!!

Just as we are preparing to tax our way to prosperity, security, and freedom I must add my voice to the chorus that we also need much more regulation of the evil-doers in business and finance. I mean, with a corporate tax rate around forty percent, we are only the third highest corporate taxer in the world. We should strive to be first. The (very roughly) six to ten percent or more of revenues our corporations spend on federal, state and local government regulatory compliance obviously is not enough either. How else could we have let all the banks falter under the weight of sub-prime debt?

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, The Federal Trade Commission Act, The Wheeler Lea Act, The Interstate Commerce Commission, The IRS, The FCC, OSHA, The FDA, The EEOC, The EPA, fifty state Attorneys General, the Federal Attorney General, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, The SEC, The Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, HIPAA., the NLRB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the SIPC, fifty state banking offices or commissions, the trial bar, fifty state and one federal legislature apparently just don’t do enough regulation.

Barney Frank said on July 14, 2008: “I think this is a case where Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are fundamentally sound. They’re not in danger of going under. I think they are in good shape going forward.” He and his peers had no culpability in the global contagion, of course. Early warning signs going back to the nineties were apparently not even shared with the august group on Capitol Hill. They were “shocked” to find gambling going on in this establishment, to paraphrase the great scene from Casablanca. Clearly regulatory staff – numbering in the six figure range nationally – needs more help and more agencies.

As an example of the beauty of regulation, the Sarbanes-Oxley costs at our little company increased 460% this year over the comparable expense in 2006. In other words, instead of hiring people to build, service, and sell our products we spent it on lawyers and accountants to prove – with marginally more transparency – what our auditors were already saying. We clearly need more Sarbanes-Oxley type rules to help us spend our investors’ money more wisely. They helped so much with Countrywide, Bear Stearns, Wachovia, and GM. So, with that said, bring on more taxes and regulation and let’s party like its 1937. Or, maybe more rational heads will prevail. One can only hope.

Best

Lazy Jack

© Edward Hunter and Thanks for the Laughs, 2009