Regulate the Banks

I've been thinking about the need to bring back real banking/ investment regulation and have come to the conclusion that we should do something.  I would go along with the libertarians that the marketplace will regulate the banks.  No these are mega institutions that have the ability to destroy the economy which affects people who did not have any dealings with the banks.  So government has to step in to protect us from these predators.

The Jobs Session

We have finally gotten to a jobs bill in the legislative jobs session. This would be the rewrite of mining laws except that it isn't. This rewrite applies to only iron mines of which there is one. This is similar to the legislature rewriting wetland rules for one company. I keep hearing that companies need certainty in regulations otherwise they will go somewhere else where there is certainty. How exactly does having to go to the legislature to have the rules changed for your business produce certainty other than to make it certain that you need donate and lobby to the legislature? This is crazy and kind of makes Wisconsin look like a banana republic.

Walkerville

The letter writer said that the walkerville residents should change the name to Obamaville, or Unionville because it is their policies that have allowed them to be unemployed and have time to protest. Really! What misguided nonsense. Who drove the economy into the ditch. George Bush and a Republican Congress. They pursued a policy of tax cuts and deregulation of business and what did we get out of the deal. The top 2% got all of the money and left a banking, housing, and manufacturing sector in shambles. The answer from Scott Walker and the Republicans nationwide is that we need to do more of the same. We just didn't deregulate enough or cut taxes enough. I think that with the 10 years of tax cuts we should be in the biggest boom economy ever, but we are not. Why is that? It is really pretty simple, we could make the taxes on everyone zero and it wouldn't help the economy out at all because there is simply no demand. Revenues to Governments are down because we have cut taxes and the economy has not recovered. So, here Scott Walker is right we must cut back on expenses. But his cuts are to education, health care, taxes, and the environment in exchange for the exact kind of jobs that he and other Republicans have criticized the President for creating or funding as being unsustainable. Unfortunately we live in an economy that is predicated on spending money and right now only 2% of the population has the kind of money available to spend and they can't possibly spend enough to support the other 98% nor do they need to. This leaves the spender of last resort the US Government. The plan to fund infrastructure will create jobs and those people will spend money. The plan to build a 21st century transportation system will create jobs and allow for a more mobile workforce in the future. Right now we are funding these kinds of projects in Iraq and Afghanistan which doesn't create jobs here. In fact I just saw that Iraq is building renewable energy systems. We can't fund that here, instead we give tax breaks to companies who are making billions of dollars if they will drill holes in the ground. If we are going to change the name of Walkerville it should be to Republicanville.

DNR hire unqualified?

Okay, I believe that in order to work for the DNR in charge of regulation you should have a college degree. In response to my ramblings about Brian Deschane's lack of a degree I was told that a college degree was not the end all be all but being qualified was and Brian is just not qualified. If that is the standard that statement is just not true. What the Governor and the Secretary (also without degrees) want from that position is someone who will change the regulatory nature of the department. In that case he is perfect for the job. In the last 2 years he has worked for the Wisconsin Builders Association, working to change the burdensome rules and regulations covering construction in the State. These are regulations such as set backs, runoff protection, and filling in of wetlands and shorelines. This is the small government conservatism, why should government tell a private individual what they can do with their property? So what if it affects others, Wisconsin is open for business and someone without a college degree is qualified to undue burdensome regulation.

Undoing Regulation and the Cost of Labor

The new governor wants to be the gate keeper of an over reaching legislative body on job killing regulation.  This isn't that he wants to make use of the Wisconsin Governor's extensive veto power, no he wants to be able to undue any regulation, past or present.  With this much power the question that everyone should be asking is why do we need a legislative body?  If you want to cut the budget get rid of the legislature.

Will cutting the job killing regulations bring jobs to Wisconsin when these jobs have gone to places without any job killing regulations or the even greater job killing wages?  If we undue all environmental regulations it would be a start.  But, in the end wages are going to be a problem.  We are competing with countries whose wage rates are 5 or more times less than ours.  Yet you have the Federal Reserve chair stating that he doesn't see deflationary pressure.  He must be blind.  It is all around.  We have lost jobs to low wage countries and workers in this country have taken pay cuts.  The price of products has not declined, so sales are off because wages are down.  At some point the price of products needs to come in line with the new cost of labor.  When that happens we will enter a deflationary economy.