Worship v. Problem Solving

From Barry Ritholz at Big Picture Blog:
"...I'm watching Rudy speak on CNBC about bank bailouts and bank regulation — and I am comforted by the simple fact that he is not in charge. As critical as I have been about the Obama administration’s economic approach, it has been about the policy response, not the understanding of the crisis.

The mayor, on the other hand, is frighteningly clueless in a Phil Gramm kinda way — he clearly does not understand how the crisis occurred, what caused the collapse, and how to fix it. Instead spouts the same discredited meme — that too much regulation was the problem. He is old school, well coached in free market aphorisms and now discredited market worship.

Its a shame that none of the anchors queried him as to what current regulations he would get rid of. (Nothing like letting a hanging curveball pass you by for a called strike)."

TW: Obama and the Dems are criticized for not "fixing financial regulation" in a post-crisis environment. They should be criticized although from what I can tell there is ZERO consensus on what should be done. Wall Street from my view is the best at bitching about regulations (i.e. up until last fall) until they need them (last fall until this spring) when they whine until they feel like they no longer need them (now). Many folks sense we "something" needs to be done, but what?

That said as Ritholz frames, there is a big difference between wrestling with real issues and just throwing out ideological rhetoric. Keep this in mind as we go forward not only with finance reform but all governance.