What happened to Adam Smith?

Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner wants to revolutionize the U.S. financial system by making sweeping increases to governmental power. I'm not going to sensationalize this like most of the media (and claim that capitalism is dead), but I'll admit: this is getting pretty ridiculous.

If you haven't read about it, Geithner's plan for the U.S. financial system is one that includes regulation of risk for financial institutions including banks, insurance companies (like AIG) and hedge funds. This is a huge change from before, where the government would stay completely out of how much risk companies are allowed to take on.

I know everyone is pissed about the AIG bonuses and all, and pissed that "oh my gawd, these people drove the company into the ground and now are getting bonuses!". I'd like everyone to remember that it was THE U.S. CONGRESS that drove these corporations into the ground by forcing them to take on risky investments. The answer here is not to regulate them by not allowing them to take on any risk. This is not how our economy works. But no one seems to care about that. As one of my good friends put it, "we already have a system check for risk. It's called business failure." If a business makes bad decisions, they FAIL. They shouldn't be getting bailed out (that's a whole separate issue). And taking control of them is not going to help anything. Congress (and the government in general) makes just as many mistakes (read: many many more) as businesspeople, and businesspeople actually have something to lose if they make too many poor decisions.

So please people, call up your representitive and tell him to vote down Geithner's plan to socialize the financial district.