Nothing A Good Bankruptcy Proceeding Couldn't Solve

Since Secretary Geithner's doing such a bang-up job bringing us out of our current crisis, this seems like a good idea. That's right, folks. The White House and Secretary Geithner want Congress to give them even more power to distort our financial system.

'Puter's left with this obvious question. What makes President Obama and Secretary Geithner so cock-sure they can run a private financial company better than the private sector did? Heck, President Obama's projecting his company (the United States Government) to lose $9.3 trillion over the next few years. And in the private sector, you can't resort to raising taxes and running year-to-year deficits to keep your business afloat.

Here's a good solution that doesn't require Congress to expend any more energy (or money) than necessary. Let the failed and failing companies go bankrupt. Nicole Gelinas in The City Journal ably explains this new-fangled concept of "bankruptcy" and its usefulness in the crisis here.

Additionally, the FDIC could prevent banks from: (1) selling mortgages to aggregators; (2) lending to subprime risks; (3) purchasing CDOs or MBSs; and/or (4) engaging in any and all other activity the FDIC thinks may have caused the current crisis.

President Obama and Congress can clean this fiasco up (now that it is (seemingly) stabilized), and prevent a recurrence, using only the tools they currently have at their disposal. There is no need to give the government more power over our economy out of a misplaced sense of fear.

** Pictured above, Secretary Geithner and Mighty Spendin' Power Rangers prepare to testify before Congress today. Geithner in pink, with +2 Bow of Cluelessness.