Obama Demands Sweeping New Powers

President Obama is demanding dangerous, sweeping new powers to seize financial services companies.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the proposal expected to be unveiled Wednesday will be “the most significant new regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, including a new watchdog agency to look out for consumers’ interests.”

The plan would give the government “new powers to seize key companies — such as insurance giant American International Group Inc. — whose failure jeopardizes the financial system.” The news report notes that “[c]urrently, the government’s authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks.”

Isn’t this too cute by half? The left plunges the country into financial crisis through a number of measures such as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and by pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and others to lend to the uncreditworthy, and now offers to save the country through more Big Government regulations.

President Obama, by the way, personally contributed to the increasingly hostile environment for banks when he represented the plaintiffs in the 1995 class action lawsuit Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank. The suit demanded that the bank grant mortgages to an equal percentage of minority and non-minority mortgage applicants. Under pressure, the bank settled the case three years later after agreeing to beef up its lending to unqualified applicants.