Jackson Jambalaya

Stuart Varney of Fox Business News blasts Obama, claiming he is seeking ultimate control of the banks as he refuses to allow banks to repay their TARP funds. Obama should welcome such repayments. However, control is more important to Obama than fiscal responsibility:
"I must be naive. I really thought the administration would welcome the return of bank bailout money. Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California.....
Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control. And for this intensely political president, mere influence is not enough. The White House wants to tell 'em what to do. Control. Direct. Command.
It is not for nothing that rage has been turned on those wicked financiers. The banks are at the core of the administration's thrust: By managing the money, government can steer the whole economy even more firmly down the left fork in the road......... Obama refuses TARP paybacks

One bank saw the handwriting on the wall and tried to give the money back:
"Here's a true story first reported by my Fox News colleague Andrew Napolitano (with the names and some details obscured to prevent retaliation). Under the Bush team a prominent and profitable bank, under threat of a damaging public audit, was forced to accept less than $1 billion of TARP money. The government insisted on buying a new class of preferred stock which gave it a tiny, minority position. The money flowed to the bank. Arguably, back then, the Bush administration was acting for purely economic reasons. It wanted to recapitalize the banks to halt a financial panic.

Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with "adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics talking, not economics..."

My prediction? Obama will further villify bankers while throwing sweetheart deals to certain banker friends (Geithner did this recently and AIG was used to funnel money to Obama's banker friends) as he practices crony capitalism. First he moves to control most of the American auto industry. If Hillarycare and Obama's words mean anything, at some point he will attempt a takeover of the American healthcare system. The federal government is now the mortgage bank for the country as its almost impossible to get a mortgage not backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or FHA.

It is in Obama's interest to control the banking industry as his plans will require unprecedented levels of money for his schemes. At some point he will follow Congressman George Miller's lead and move to remove tax breaks for 401k's and other private retirement accounts and force Americans to put this money into government retirement accounts (Argentina seized private retirement funds last year when it needed the money to fund its liberal programs). The stock market does not mean as much to Obama as it does to other politicians because when the stock market falls, typically investors place their money in treasuries and other bonds as they are thought to be "safe", which will put some downward pressure on yields. Such downward pressure on yields lowers the costs for deficit spending. Obama is not being accused of trying to wreck the stock market but it should be noted there IS a financial incentive (to Obama) for the stock market to underperform.

As Obama moves to cement his control of the banking system, he will place conditions on banks. Bans on political lobbying will prevent bankers from donating to Republicans or other political opponents. Claims of housing discrimination will be used to force banks to pour money into his pet special-interest groups such as ACORN. Further controls will be placed on hiring, layoffs, and pay. Under S. Dakota v. Dole, the government can place any conditions on receipt of government money (I warned about this when TARP was passed last year.) It is no secret Democrats are doing exactly that right now. However, Geithner is going further and asking for the power to take over any financial entity if it somehow "harms" the economy. Such power has already been approved by the Supreme Court in Wickard v. Filburn (A farmer was prevented from growing his own wheat for his own consumption as it kept a purchase of wheat from the market, thus having a negative impact on the economy).

Mark Twain wrote "principles have on real force except when one is well-fed". What is becoming clear is that Obama, who never discussed such outmoded concepts as liberty and freedom while he was a candidate, is following Rahmbo's advice to never waste a crisis. While everyone worries about how the Democrats will fare if the economy continues to go south as they assume Obama focuses on improving the economy.

What people fail to realize is Obama is playing by a different set of rules and seeks to convert America not to a European model but instead more of a Mexican-type government. A government dedicated to one-party rule. A government that will control the media while preaching "fairness". A government that seeks to criminalize its opposition (See Leahy's crusade). A government that practices a combination of crony capitalism and national socialism where it allows its corporate friends to loot freely while forcing their competitors to submit to its will. Unfortunately for banks trying to escape the noose, it is probably too late as once they took government money, they became government slaves and are seeing exactly what the fate of a slave is under Obama.