The Banking Takeover Continues

First it was just the banks that had taken TARP money, then it was any financial institution that was in trouble. Now, Obama is moving toward complete control of all banks, period:

Senior administration officials are considering the creation of a single agency to regulate the banking industry, replacing a patchwork of agencies that failed to prevent banks from falling into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The agency would be a key element in a sweeping administration plan to overhaul financial regulation, which officials hope to unveil in the next few weeks, including the creation of a new authority to police risks to the financial system, and a new agency to protect consumers, the sources said. Most of the proposals would require legislation.

Well, of course they would! And with the Democrat-controlled Congress, there's really nothing anyone can do -- other than those same Democrats, ha ha ha -- to stop him.

I think that the greater point was totally missed here, so let's rewind a bit. The financial crisis was not caused by a failure to regulate, but rather by Democrat policies that forced lending institutions to make risky loans based on things like race rather than income and credit history. It all snowballed last fall and exploded into the mess we witnessed. Also, it doesn't really matter how regulated the industry is if Congress and bank leaders are happily ignoring those regulations!

For all the scrambling that many banks are doing right now to give back the TARP money they were forced into taking, it apparently won't matter. Even banks that never took a cent of TARP money are going to be controlled by the most radical anti-American, anti-business President this country has ever seen.

Remember when I said this a few weeks ago:

Since the takeover of the financial industry isn't quite complete yet, Obama still has some work to do. Whether that means rejecting repayment or causing some new crisis that forces additional reliance on the federal government (i.e. more bailouts), I'm certain he'll do it. He hasn't come this far just to give up now.

Now we know the plan, and we can kiss the financial industry good-bye. The only real question is: what industry is next?

There's my two cents.