Regulation Deregulation

Regulation, deregulation, who cares. The problem is not that financial institutions are regulated or not regulated the problem is that when it comes to regulation there is a very uneven playing field. Imagine a football game where there where different rules for the teams.

In the economy in which we are all obliged to exist and participate the powers that be i.e. the federal government has decided in its wisdom that the average citizen and small business should be regulated to the extreme while the large corporations should be regulated sparingly if at all.

Then there is the financial aspect to regulation where in most small players cannot afford to go up against the State or Federal Government while the large corporations are lawyer and accountant rich, not to mention shareholder capital to bandy about with impunity.

I personally am all for free markets and zero regulation with the caveat that the “free” and “zero” also apply to me.

As an example recent legislation introduced made it more difficult for the ordinary person to file for bankruptcy, no such legislation was introduced for the corporate giants. Then to add insult to injury the Federal Government assists Chrysler and GM in its bankruptcy which screwed small creditors. At the same time our glorious elected officials where doling out our precious tax payer dollars to the “too big to fail”.

The lesson in this for Ordinary Joe is that it is far better to owe a few million than a few thousand. Or put bluntly in Joe speak “if you can’t beat them, join them”. Come on now Mr. Obama, I want my piece of the pie. Did I mention that I’m not fond of the humble flavored one?

In conclusion Mr. President forget the debate over regulation and rather ponder the constitutionally correct notion of regulating every citizen as equally as the constitution deems us to be.