The Godfather: Life imitates art

To those who argue that the Constitution forbids secession, I often reply that in their logic, ratifying the Constitution is like joining the Mafia -- you can join, but you will never leave it alive.

Dan Weintraub at Vermont Commons carries this analogy further, calling it "Sopranoland". He points out that President Obama has given a great speech about regulating the banking system, while doing nothing about it. The reason? The U.S. economy depends on keeping up the fraud perpetrated by the Wall Street bankers -- literally, a Ponzi scheme:

You see, if our leaders REALLY believed in true reform of the financial industry, they wouldn't create obstacles to the imposition of such reforms. Why aren't banks being forced to put all of their assets on the books? Why are the banks allowed to value their assets NOT to the marketplace but to pure fantasy? Why are OTC products like CDS still being traded when it is those very unregulated OTC products that precipitated, to a great extent, the coming of this economic crisis? Why is there opposition to auditing the Federal Reserve when it is the Federal Reserve who---through its "open market" operations---has dished out trillions of dollars in tax-payer monies in an effort to save the very banks that have brought the nation to its fiscal knees? Why is the FHA helping to originate mortgages that, like their subprime cousins, lack any reasonable expectations with regard to upfront capital requiremements for incipient homeowners??

However, like all Ponzi schemes, this one will eventually (or more likely, very soon) crash. This is yet another reason why Ohio needs to start thinking like an independent nation!