The financial class is convinced their woes are the result of rules that make their wheeling and dealing accountable to supervisors. They refuse to accept that the problem lies in the fact that they are dealing in worthless stuff and the effort to create artificial value by rationing the distribution of dollars is bound to fail.

While alternative currencies have not been the siccess that was hoped, experimenting with them has shown that the important ingredient is the credibility of the issuer of the currency. (Even green stamps had value until the issuer suddenly decided to discontinue them). The currencies of incredible states, such as Zimbabwe, have no credibility in the market. That is, nobody is willing to exchange them for real goods and services.

Banks are entitled to derive income from the collection, accounting and distribution services they provide. However, the bankers won’t get rich off that. Wealth is the result of stealth. Bankers conniving with thieves requires secrecy and that is what Dodd/Frank stripped.

Will Capitol Hill protect its henchmen or are the critters merely going through the motions? How many votes does Wall Street actually deliver?

The financial industry has been deflating since about 2000, when the Fed decided to reduce the official interest rate in the belief that cheaper money will spur its use. Instead, the people who rely on unearned income shifted to more risky investments that promised a larger return, i.e.real estate and then, when borrowers defaulted, got burned. Most people have probably forgotten the GWB sponsorship of the “ownership society” that was overshadowed by 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. Anyway, the crash of 2008 was engineered as an October surprise, but poorly timed, so it did not have the desired effect on the electorate. Then, in part to disguise that the crash was engineered, the rationing of the currency had to be maintained. Also, the people who had voted wrong deserved to be punished by having their wages reduced some more. But, none of that helped to boost the financial class. Only the shadow economy where real goods and services are exchanged kept growing. And that is anathema to Capitol Hill because the shadow economy is what they do not control.

Meanwhile, the only segment of the financial sector that has seen increased growth is the credit unions.

in a sense, the dollar is like that other figment of the imagination, public information. Once it is released out of the bottle, there is no getting it back.

Who in his right mind thinks that IOUs can be rationed?