R
rdean
Guest
Deregulation really took off when Republicans took over all three branches of government eventually wrecking the economy. Cutting taxes and deregulation represent the entire extent of Republican Economic policy. There is nothing else there of any real value. And because it seems to "sound" so common sense like, they simply insist it must work. It's like "it's snowing in winter so there must not be any climate change" or "the eye is complex and no apple ever turned into a cow so evolution can't be real".
We will start at the state level and then move on to the federal level. Let's look at Texas, a state former President Bush used to be governor of.
Consumer Rates Climb After Deregulation Goldman Sachs Funded - Bloomberg
Houston (10750MF) consumers were supposed to get lower electricity rates from deregulation. Instead, they pay some of the nations highest prices, partly because of bonds Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) recently sold for a local utility.
The Wall Street bank marketed $1.7 billion of securities for Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc. (CNP) last month at higher yields than most of the companys similar long-term debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That raised costs borne by 2.2 million Houston-area consumers by about $47 million.
The sale shows how deregulation in Texas backfired, driving up costs for those promised savings. Texans paid some of the lowest rates in the country before the changes, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Now they pay the fifth- highest electricity prices. The policy shift toward competition has also misfired in other states including California.
Electric deregulation fails to live up to promises as bills soar - USATODAY.com
BENTON, Ill. This wasn't supposed to happen with deregulation. Electric bills were supposed to go down.
An Associated Press analysis of federal data shows consumers in the 17 deregulated areas paid an average of 30% more for power in 2006 than their counterparts in regulated states.
Consumer groups, however, say deregulation has had a chance to prove itself. In Texas, for example, competition did develop after rate caps ended but the energy prices remained higher.
Texas residents like recent retiree Bill Sebenoler of Arlington have more utility choices under deregulation, but that hasn't kept prices down. Sebenoler said his bill reached nearly $500 in September 2006, up 82% from a year earlier.
The Contributor | Energy Deregulation Has Cost Texans $22 Billion Over the Past Decade
Deregulation has also caused problems with safety and reliability. In some parts of Texas, old plants that produce toxic fumes have been allowed to stand because there is little financial incentive for companies to invest in building new ones. Because of depressed natural gas prices, it has been more profitable for deregulated electric companies to let old plants continue to run, despite the deleterious effects on population health. In addition, consumer complaints have skyrocketed in the decade since deregulation. Only in the past year has the number of complaints started to decrease, though it's still several times higher than it was before deregulation began.
Though consumers are paying more and getting less, that hasn't stopped CEO pay from steadily rising. In 2000, as the Texas Legislature was passing energy deregulation, the average pay for CEOs of major utility companies was $2.7 million. By 2011, that had risen to $7.5 million, a 175 percent increase. In contrast, utility CEO pay in the rest of the United States only rose 150 percent.
Private Wall Street Companies Caused The Financial Crisis; Not Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Or The Community Reinvestment Act
President Bush Appointed An SEC Chief Who Believed Government Was "A Service Industry" Rather Than A Strict Regulator. According to fraud expert Bill Black: "George W. Bush was an ardent anti-regulator. He appointed the nation's leading anti-regulators to run the regulatory agencies. Bush appointed Harvey Pitt, for example, to run the SEC because he was the leading opponent of vigorous securities regulation and effective accounting.
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan Now Says He Was Wrong To Oppose Regulation Of Derivatives. As reported by the New York Times:
[O]n Thursday, almost three years after stepping down as chairman of the Federal Reserve, a humbled Mr. Greenspan admitted that he had put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and had failed to anticipate the self-destructive power of wanton mortgage lending.
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief," he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. [...]
On a day that brought more bad news about rising home foreclosures and slumping employment, Mr. Greenspan refused to accept blame for the crisis but acknowledged that his belief in deregulation had been shaken.
Bush SEC Chief Cox Opposed Regulation Of Derivatives In The Mid '90s. As reported by Pro Publica: "Cox has long known about the pitfalls of poorly understood hedging instruments; as a Congressman, he represented Orange County, California, when it declared bankruptcy in 1994 after its investments in derivatives went badly awry. But at the time, he did not join calls to regulate them: 'I'm concerned that now anything called a derivative will be considered inherent evil in Congress,' Cox said, according to the Orange County Register. 'It is sort of like a fire hose: In the wrong hands, it is dangerous.' Did his opinion evolve by the time he was confirmed as SEC Chairman? You won't find any clues by looking at his Senate confirmation hearing of July 2005. That is because no senator asked him a question about the topic."
Bush's Pick To Run The Federal Reserve Said In 2005 That Derivatives Did Not Need Regulation Because Traders Were "Very Sophisticated." As reported by Pro Publica:
When former Sen. Paul Sarbanes asked [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke about derivatives at his November 2005 Senate confirmation hearing, Bernanke said he felt "sanguine" about these instruments, noting the sophistication of those who dealt with them. Sarbanes responded that this attitude toward derivatives and the hedge funds dealing in them could "come back to haunt you."
"During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases 'Wall Street' and 'shadow banking' and the words 'interconnection" and 'deregulation' from the panel's final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal."
Author Of Top Book On Financial Crisis Says There Is No Evidence For Blaming Either The CRA Or Fannie And Freddie
Chamber Of Commerce Denounces Report That Undermines Its Partisan Interests
----------------------------------------------------------
Anyone can go and research what caused the economic meltdown. Someone was complaining about a comment I made a couple of years ago on Bush the Republicans and deregulation. It's clear the economy crashed. Even twenty minutes on the Internet, it's easy to find out why. Every newspaper in the world reported on it. It's been researched more than Obama's birth certificate. Deregulation affected everything from energy to 401's. And while there may be a democrat involved here or there, "Deregulation" and "Tax Cuts" are the very core of every single GOP economic policy.
We will start at the state level and then move on to the federal level. Let's look at Texas, a state former President Bush used to be governor of.
Consumer Rates Climb After Deregulation Goldman Sachs Funded - Bloomberg
Houston (10750MF) consumers were supposed to get lower electricity rates from deregulation. Instead, they pay some of the nations highest prices, partly because of bonds Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) recently sold for a local utility.
The Wall Street bank marketed $1.7 billion of securities for Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc. (CNP) last month at higher yields than most of the companys similar long-term debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That raised costs borne by 2.2 million Houston-area consumers by about $47 million.
The sale shows how deregulation in Texas backfired, driving up costs for those promised savings. Texans paid some of the lowest rates in the country before the changes, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Now they pay the fifth- highest electricity prices. The policy shift toward competition has also misfired in other states including California.
Electric deregulation fails to live up to promises as bills soar - USATODAY.com
BENTON, Ill. This wasn't supposed to happen with deregulation. Electric bills were supposed to go down.
An Associated Press analysis of federal data shows consumers in the 17 deregulated areas paid an average of 30% more for power in 2006 than their counterparts in regulated states.
Consumer groups, however, say deregulation has had a chance to prove itself. In Texas, for example, competition did develop after rate caps ended but the energy prices remained higher.
Texas residents like recent retiree Bill Sebenoler of Arlington have more utility choices under deregulation, but that hasn't kept prices down. Sebenoler said his bill reached nearly $500 in September 2006, up 82% from a year earlier.
The Contributor | Energy Deregulation Has Cost Texans $22 Billion Over the Past Decade
Deregulation has also caused problems with safety and reliability. In some parts of Texas, old plants that produce toxic fumes have been allowed to stand because there is little financial incentive for companies to invest in building new ones. Because of depressed natural gas prices, it has been more profitable for deregulated electric companies to let old plants continue to run, despite the deleterious effects on population health. In addition, consumer complaints have skyrocketed in the decade since deregulation. Only in the past year has the number of complaints started to decrease, though it's still several times higher than it was before deregulation began.
Though consumers are paying more and getting less, that hasn't stopped CEO pay from steadily rising. In 2000, as the Texas Legislature was passing energy deregulation, the average pay for CEOs of major utility companies was $2.7 million. By 2011, that had risen to $7.5 million, a 175 percent increase. In contrast, utility CEO pay in the rest of the United States only rose 150 percent.
Private Wall Street Companies Caused The Financial Crisis; Not Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Or The Community Reinvestment Act
President Bush Appointed An SEC Chief Who Believed Government Was "A Service Industry" Rather Than A Strict Regulator. According to fraud expert Bill Black: "George W. Bush was an ardent anti-regulator. He appointed the nation's leading anti-regulators to run the regulatory agencies. Bush appointed Harvey Pitt, for example, to run the SEC because he was the leading opponent of vigorous securities regulation and effective accounting.
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan Now Says He Was Wrong To Oppose Regulation Of Derivatives. As reported by the New York Times:
[O]n Thursday, almost three years after stepping down as chairman of the Federal Reserve, a humbled Mr. Greenspan admitted that he had put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and had failed to anticipate the self-destructive power of wanton mortgage lending.
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief," he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. [...]
On a day that brought more bad news about rising home foreclosures and slumping employment, Mr. Greenspan refused to accept blame for the crisis but acknowledged that his belief in deregulation had been shaken.
Bush SEC Chief Cox Opposed Regulation Of Derivatives In The Mid '90s. As reported by Pro Publica: "Cox has long known about the pitfalls of poorly understood hedging instruments; as a Congressman, he represented Orange County, California, when it declared bankruptcy in 1994 after its investments in derivatives went badly awry. But at the time, he did not join calls to regulate them: 'I'm concerned that now anything called a derivative will be considered inherent evil in Congress,' Cox said, according to the Orange County Register. 'It is sort of like a fire hose: In the wrong hands, it is dangerous.' Did his opinion evolve by the time he was confirmed as SEC Chairman? You won't find any clues by looking at his Senate confirmation hearing of July 2005. That is because no senator asked him a question about the topic."
Bush's Pick To Run The Federal Reserve Said In 2005 That Derivatives Did Not Need Regulation Because Traders Were "Very Sophisticated." As reported by Pro Publica:
When former Sen. Paul Sarbanes asked [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke about derivatives at his November 2005 Senate confirmation hearing, Bernanke said he felt "sanguine" about these instruments, noting the sophistication of those who dealt with them. Sarbanes responded that this attitude toward derivatives and the hedge funds dealing in them could "come back to haunt you."
"During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases 'Wall Street' and 'shadow banking' and the words 'interconnection" and 'deregulation' from the panel's final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal."
Author Of Top Book On Financial Crisis Says There Is No Evidence For Blaming Either The CRA Or Fannie And Freddie
Chamber Of Commerce Denounces Report That Undermines Its Partisan Interests
----------------------------------------------------------
Anyone can go and research what caused the economic meltdown. Someone was complaining about a comment I made a couple of years ago on Bush the Republicans and deregulation. It's clear the economy crashed. Even twenty minutes on the Internet, it's easy to find out why. Every newspaper in the world reported on it. It's been researched more than Obama's birth certificate. Deregulation affected everything from energy to 401's. And while there may be a democrat involved here or there, "Deregulation" and "Tax Cuts" are the very core of every single GOP economic policy.
