Word: congresses
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First came the financial sector. Bankruptcy has never really worked for banks, because mere rumors that a bank is headed for failure can drive it under. That's why Congress long ago created a separate regulatory system and reorganization process for banks, with the Fed and the fdic at the center. Over the past quarter-century, though, a "shadow banking system" of investment firms, hedge funds and derivatives dealers grew up that was subject to the same risks as banks but not the same rules. In September, Lehman Brothers, a major cog in this system, filed for Chapter...
...first two are good reasons for Congress to take the carmakers' pleas seriously--a shutdown of GM is not what anybody wants now. The third argument is more problematic. Yes, GM and the other automakers have cut costs sharply, especially since 2005, and the United Auto Workers union has made historic concessions. But GM could accomplish even more along those lines, plus reduce the big debts it has incurred trying to settle pension and retiree health-care obligations, under Chapter 11 protection...
Then again, Congress can do things that a bankruptcy judge couldn't--such as revamp health care and retirement policy so the costs don't weigh so heavily on big old companies trying to reinvent themselves. That won't happen overnight. But this particular economic crisis is so wrapped up in past government decisions--about financial regulation, about budgets, about housing policy, about pensions and health care--that the private solution of Chapter 11 just may not be enough. Bankruptcy-by-another-name it is, then...
...McCain's moderate record cost him votes. Moderates will say he ran too far to the right--and erred by picking Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin has vocal defenders who think that she helped the ticket and should run for President herself in 2012. In Congress, some Republicans will want to cooperate with President-elect Barack Obama, heeding the voters' desire for bipartisanship. Others will seek to draw a clear contrast between their ideas...
Republicans are counting on the natural tides of politics to lift their numbers in Congress in 2010. The Democrats may overreach, or their supporters may get complacent. But to get back in the driver's seat, to become relevant again, Republicans will have to devise an agenda that speaks to a country where more people feel the bite of payroll taxes than income taxes, where health-care costs eat up raises even in good times, where the length of the daily commute is a bigger irritant than are earmarks and where whites are a declining proportion of the electorate...