Live from a white spot in a purple nation on a blue planet...

The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the nation’s hodgepodge of financial regulatory agencies, which many experts say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they set off what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.

Democratic lawmakers are all but certain to say the proposal does not go far enough in restricting the kinds of practices that caused the financial crisis. Many of the proposals, like those that would consolidate regulatory agencies, have nothing to do with the turmoil in financial markets. And some of the proposals could actually reduce regulation.

According to a summary provided by the administration, the plan would consolidate an alphabet soup of banking and securities regulators into a powerful trio of overseers responsible for everything from banks and brokerage firms to hedge funds and private equity firms.

While the plan could expose Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds to greater scrutiny, it carefully avoids a call for tighter regulation. (Source)

So...let me get this straight...we've got government wanting MORE power, but doing LESS regulating of the troublemakers?  We've got a bank that wants PATRIOT Act-style powers unto itself?  We want the Fed Chairman to be able to use paramilitary forces as a private enforcement army?  We want the Federal Reserve (a private banking cartel) to take over financial law enforcement?

It's time to allow the Columbian drug cartels the chance to run the War on Drugs, too. It's time to let Al Quaeda run the War on Terror.  It all makes sense now...the biggest offenders have the most to contribute in cleaning up their messes, so let's give them absolute power, ignore their nature, and pray for the best.  That's the strategy of a bold decider.