Toomey to challenge Specter

We are pleased to welcome Mark as our guest blogger. Mark is a sports radio talk show host and political enthusiast who engagingly blogs about sports and politics at Spolitics - Sports and Politics so be sure to drop by and take a look!

Being from Pennsylvania, this was the best news story of the day. Incumbent Republican Senator and RINO (Republican in Name Only) Arlen Specter has gotten a primary challenge from conservative Pat Toomey. Pat was the president of Club for Growth and also mounted a primary challenge for Specter in 2004, which he lost narrowly. Specter is thought to be very vulnerable because of his vote for the stimulus package, a package that only 3 other Republicans voted for. Specter knew a challenge was coming, and even prematurely ran an ad about Pat Toomey criticizing Toomey for being a Wall Street Trader. A hypothetical matchup between Toomey and Specter conducted by Quinnipiac University had Toomey leading Specter 41%-27% with 28% undecided. This could turn out to be a great race, and while I think Specter has a much better chance in the general election, he is basically a Democrat anyway so I hope Toomey can pull it out.

http://www.spolitical.blogspot.com/

Big thanks to Mark for his informative article! To read more, click on the title link.

We're Looking for a Few Good Bloggers

We welcome guest bloggers! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please click our Send Us A Note icon in the right navigation bar (about midway down the page under Get in Touch) and let us know what you have in mind. Here are some great tips (opens in a new window) if you want to guest post. We'll be posting a blog entry from one of our guest bloggers soon. Thanks!

Can financial institutions exist under unbridled capitalism?

Events on Wall Street and resulting hearings in Congress in the past several months have made manifest the fact that the financial institutions and others cannot exist under unbridled capitalism. Perhaps Citicorp is the best example. They are the recipients of billions of dollars in aid and judged to be too big to fail. Sandy Weill, former CEO, is said by Charlie Gasparino of CNBC to have treated this one-time great corporation like his own personal playpen. He was also instrumental in appointing Bob Rubin, former Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton, to the position of Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Citicorp. Rubin is quoted as saying, in effect, that he wasn't interested in becoming part of management but would like to serve in an advisory role to the Board of Directors and CEOs. In this position he is said to have okayed the leveraging of assets 39:1. If that had worked he would have been a hero. It didn't work and Rubin suffered no ill consequences.


What is evident now is that after the smoke clears, the congress should and will enact regulatory statutes. These should include, but not be limited to the following:


1. Limit the size of banks
2. Limit the exposure to risk
3. Reinstate Glass-Steagall (legislation which separates commercial and investment banking)
4. Limit the types of monetary instruments, e.g. derivatives, etc, which can be employed
5. The stockholders should have the power to vote on executive salaries should they exceed a certain multiple of the salaries of non-management employees

In the last 16 years, under Presidents Clinton and Bush, we have seen the largest transfer of wealth from the producers to the parasites.

It will be interesting to watch the swing of the pendulum as new bills are taken up in Congress to regulate and somehow rein in Wall Street.

Change has come to America - Our 44th President

REUTERS

Get involved - VOTE!