Despite the Pennsylvania trends, Bedford PA is not a left-leaning area. One clue is the big “Jesus Is Lord” sign (with photograph of Jesus) that preaches to the Pennsylvania Turnpike as it angles through town. People support the NRA here, and disapprove the ACLU. Christian values are promoted in the local paper alongside church suppers, county fairs, and yard sales. Compared to where I live and work in the Washington, D.C. area, this is a safe and peaceful place. The crime report tells of of a bicycle stolen from a garage, or a coin box pilfered at the laundromat.
Solid and Bailout Free
The local bank is not associated with any of the giant financial conglomerates that are said to be “too big to fail.” Were it not solid as claimed, this bank could fail easily and almost unnoticed outside of Bedford County.
This bank is proud not to be associated with any government bailout. How then does such a bank feel about the handouts of public funds to its wealthy relatives? If, indeed, the bailouts were necessary to prevent a general financial collapse, then they were also in the best interest of Bedford banking. A general collapse could doom a Bedford bank, no matter how solid. But this local bank still takes a different view. No government would come to its aid if IT were about to fail. Why should the larger banks get special treatment?
I do not know about the validity of claims that large financial and insurance institutions must not be allowed to fail. There are smart people who say yes and others who say no. I do not know what to think about this.
What I do believe is that we should not allow these companies to become too large to fail. For if we allow this, we risk becomming hostage to their size and influence, as we clearly are now.
“America Held Hostage” was the nightly news when Iranian radicals took and held our citizens for 444 long days. What else can we call it now that we must donate unimaginable sums to help companies out of the holes they dug themselves into?
The way things are working out, federal rescue isn’t about need or about fairness, it’s about size. If you’re a small bank in Bedford–or any small business, or any individual homeowner–and you get in financial trouble, tough luck. But if you are huge in size and your downfall is perceived to be threatening enough, the public treasury must come to your rescue. This is our double standard. And the result of the double standard is, at best, to suspend accountability based on size. At worst it results in the reward of deliberate abuse and wrongdoing.
I do not know if we are doing the right things or the wrong things in response to our economic woes. Let us grant for sake of discussion that we are doing necessary things that will bring a turnaround eventually. My point is that steps need to be taken to prevent such a hostage situation from taking place ever again. And it has to do with size. The public must be protected from the arrogance and misuse of power that derives from size.
Most of us prefer to have as little government interferance and regulation in our lives as possible. I’ll wager that’s the feeling of the Bedford pickup owner I noticed over the weekend, and his dog as well. But all of us need protection from the abuse of power, especially where life’s essentials are concerned. We are prone to regulate the small details and keep hands off the ones that really matter. Is it really more important to regulate the composition of paint in a child’s toy than to protect the assets of her family from financial predators?
Power corrupts, and monopolistic power does so even more so. How fortunate the world is that the Internet has emerged as a free and open resource. Can you imagine the consequences if it were owned and controlled by a multinational corporation? And what if there were only one airline, free to fly any routes it wanted and charge any amount of fare? And what if there was one giant conglomerate in charge of all lending, investments, credit cards, pension funds, savings and checking, ATMs, all of it? Well, that’s exactly where we have been headed.
We need to be smart as hell and not allow it any more.