With 700 billion dollars of unencumbered assets, the new kid on Wall Street is to be the new Bank of Henry Paulson. Not only is this bank unburdened by debts or antsy, anxious stockholders, it is destined to serve as a great and radical experiment in the virtues and possibilities of true de-regulation. Moving well beyond the petty and cautious imaginings of the Phil Grahams and John McCains of the world (the previous generation of so-called de-regulators), this unprecedented bank will not only be unhindered by normal banking regulations, its very charter is written to make sure that it is not accountable to any Congress or any court.
It turns out that what Wall Street needs is a huge new bank that isn't bogged down by regulation, oversight, transparency or any of those other hindrances that have tripped up the other financial institutions.
In fact, The Bank of Henry Paulson, this wet dream of de-regulation is destined to be unfettered even by the logics of supply and demand or even profitability! Not content to shake off banking regulations and the laws of the land, the Bank of Paulson will be free to pay whatever it wants for whatever it wants without having to worry about a board of directors or penny-pinching stockholders who might insist that it limit itself to investments that could actually render a return. No hindering need to maintain capital or assets. No, the Bank of Paulson will be free and unfettered to explore the true outer reaches of de-regulation, free even from the interference of the market itself.
And so the Bush administration vigorously makes its case before Congress and the punditocracy with an inspiring and daring vision of new horizons of freedom and de-regulation. The Bank of Henry Paulson is certainly destined to inspire generations of well-connected federal entrepreneurs. I think we can all admire the audacity of this experiment. Truly the time has come for a bold adventure into the far horizons of de-regulation.