Barney Frank is my personal hero. His latest crusade is one of his most admirable yet. He has determined that municipalities are paying too high an interest premium to borrow debt and that he Barney Frank is going to save them by reducing their borrowing costs.
I'm not quite sure what it means when he says that rates are too high. I assume he doesn't like the way the free market works and is unhappy with the actual numerical interest rate municipalities are paying. I'm sure he is right too. Municipalities are being screwed. After all, everyone knows the private market has a vendetta against these municipalities and the fact that they are paying unfairly high rates has nothing at all to do with the fact that they are massively insolvent and therefore huge credit risks.
But this is why Mr. Frank is so amazing and is my personal hero. He is able to act with 100% confidence without anything at all resembling logic. He, Barney Frank, hero of the people, is going to lower the cost to municipalities so all the corrupt, inefficient payments to his voting constituents can continue unabated.
Now how is he going to do this you ask? How is he going to somehow magically lower costs without any unintended consequences?
Well this is why Barney Frank is my hero and you are not. You are a skeptic who doubts the power of the almighty one. Just believe. Don't question. God knows you will be happier. Of course if you, like me, are still skeptical I'll give you the answer. He can't. He is a buffoon who has no idea what he is doing but views himself as a Messiah - a savior of those who can't defend themselves.
Which brings us to a small but interesting philosophical tangent. Barney Frank doesn't believe he is evil. Nobody actually believes they are evil. Everyone is always trying to do good. Even Hitler thought he was doing good. Eliminating the evil Jews and restoring the Aryan race to its rightful place was his crusade.
Barney Frank is not evil but he is either horribly ignorant or tremendously arrogant. Barney Frank's plan calls for the Federal Government to guarantee part or all of municipal debt. By doing this Barney will most assuredly accomplish his goal of lowering cities' borrowing costs at the same time as he massively increases the credit risk of the United States. Aside from the fact that the United States is already a banana republic, this bill, if passed, would be the single most damaging thing Mr. Frank has ever done. It destroys the Constitutional concept of Federalism, it massively increases the United States' credit risk, and it creates moral hazards as far as the eye can see.
Let's hope it passes so this charade of a U.S. AAA rating ends soon.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Barney Frank is a Genius
Posted by Avi Kahan at 9:57 AM
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