‘Puter agrees (mostly) with The OEV’s post below. To clarify ‘Puter’s position a bit, this new-found government focus on elimiation of moral hazard certainly changes the rules of the game, making taxpayers implicit guarantors of private equity’s risks. We all know how well that works for the taxpayers after reviewing the recent glories of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

OEV notes that one possible solution to this “too big to fail” problem is a return to the Teddy Roosevelt policy of trust busting, in order to reduce the risk of business enterpises imposing too much risk on the overall economy. But this, too, is government intrusion into the free market, whereby government experts decide how big is too big.

‘Puter thinks the first part of OEV’s post is exactly right. Businesses must fail in order to keep the capitalist system working properly. Preventing businesses that richly deserve to go under from going under only rewards incompetence.

In contemplating increased regulation, let’s recall that the contagion that started this credit crunch, the housing shock, and this specific bailout was well-intended government intervention in the market. Who can be against increased home onwership? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government creations used for the political purpose of increasing homeownership through creation of additional lending capital in banks, created the perfect storm necessary to lead to the current crisis. Without Fannie and Freddie’s cheap money and deep (government) pockets, these CDOs and other derivative debt structures would not have been possible. In essence, earlier government intervention created the moral hazard that led to this current crisis, and now the government wants to double down, creating more moral hazard by preventing the natural consequences of bad business decisions.

Government regulation is a necessary evil. But, so too is business failure a necessary evil. Finding the proper regulatory balance is a delicate task, one for which success or failure may not be apparent for decades. Somewhere between socialism and unrestrained capitalism lies the right path for America. ‘Puter doesn’t know exactly where that path lies, but he does know where it doesn’t. And this $700 billion taxpayer funded bailout is not the correct path.

'Puter

Always right, unless he isn’t, the infallible Ghettoputer F. X. Gormogons claims to be an in-law of the Volgi, although no one really believes this.

’Puter carefully follows economic and financial trends, legal affairs, and serves as the Gormogons’ financial and legal advisor. He successfully defended us against a lawsuit from a liquor distributor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid deliveries of bootleg shandies.

The Geep has an IQ so high it is untestable and attempts to measure it have resulted in dangerously unstable results as well as injuries to researchers. Coincidentally, he publishes intelligence tests as a side gig.

His sarcasm is so highly developed it borders on the psychic, and he is often able to insult a person even before meeting them. ’Puter enjoys hunting small game with 000 slugs and punt guns, correcting homilies in real time at Mass, and undermining unions. ’Puter likes to wear a hockey mask and carry an axe into public campgrounds, where he bursts into people’s tents and screams. As you might expect, he has been shot several times but remains completely undeterred.

He assures us that his obsessive fawning over news stories involving women teachers sleeping with young students is not Freudian in any way, although he admits something similar once happened to him. Uniquely, ’Puter is unable to speak, read, or write Russian, but he is able to sing it fluently.

Geep joined the order in the mid-1980s. He arrived at the Castle door with dozens of steamer trunks and an inarticulate hissing creature of astonishingly low intelligence he calls “Sleestak.” Ghettoputer appears to make his wishes known to Sleestak, although no one is sure whether this is the result of complex sign language, expert body posture reading, or simply beating Sleestak with a rubber mallet.

‘Puter suggests the Czar suck it.