A Call to Courage

[Valin]

NRO:

Why our business leaders fear their own government, and what they can do about it.

Lee Habeeb & Mike Leven

 

(Snip)

 

For decades, the ever-growing administrative state has made it increasingly difficult for business leaders to do their jobs. While regulators do play a role in protecting our free-enterprise system and the lives and health of our citizens, much of what passes for regulation has nothing to do with protecting the environment or making the markets safer; it’s about power, control, and revenue. And sometimes, it’s about protecting the interests of one group at the expense of another.

 

A case in point.

 

In a recent *Wall Street Journal article, we learned about what should have been a routine conference call on some rule changes that impact small and regional banks. On the call were officials at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and nearly 1,500 bankers. A man who identified himself only as a fourth-generation banker from Minnesota began complaining about the possibility of having to set aside much more money when making nontraditional mortgage loans.

 

The banker didn’t understand why the bureaucrats were for this change, because he’d been making loans of that type for nearly 40 years, with almost no defaults.

 

That’s when things got interesting.

 

(Snip)

 

And a very interesting question is asked farther down

 

* Google "Small Banks Are Blunt in Dislike of New Rules"