Next Up: Regulating Salaries

Next Up: Regulating Salaries

Barney "Blowhard" Frank has revealed his leftist zeal and intent to control the means of production. In a Financial Week article reports that:

Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that now apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said.

“There’s deeply rooted anger on the part of the average American,” the Massachusetts Democrat said at a Washington news conference today.

He said the compensation restrictions would apply to all financial institutions and might be extended to include all U.S. companies.

The provision will be part of a broader package that would likely give the Federal Reserve the authority to monitor systemic risk in the economy and to shut down financial institutions that face too much exposure, Mr. Frank said.

While restricting tax deductibility of salary over, say, a half million per year, which Geithner said at his confirmation hearing he might do for bailed out financial firms, might make higher salaries more expensive for companies, may force some sort of profit-based dividend compensation scheme for these firms, Barney wants to ban higher compensation for all financial firms, and beyond.

Barney pushed lending institutions into making more high risk loans, and thus helped to create the difficulties we are currently in, but he is apparently not satisfied. Now he wants to use the real or imagined power of "The Won" to really get down to micro-managing companies on an unprecedented scale."Hope and Change" may soon turn into "Fear and Loathing." Just you wait.

Our new president has boldly stated that "We won - I will trump you on this." Compare that with Ronald Reagan's Initial Actions Project: “The election was not a bestowal of political power, but a stewardship opportunity for us to reconsider and restructure the political agenda for the next two decades. The public has sanctioned the search for a new public philosophy to govern America.” In other words, "we're going to need to argue for our program."

Obama seems to feel that the argument is over. He may soon find that the argument has barely begun.