Stock Tip of the Day, Sell SCGS

Senator Susan Collins mustered up a bit of indignation and acted a bit chagrined at the Goldman Sachs hearing yesterday saying at one point, "I cannot help but get the feeling that the strategy of the witnesses is to try to burn through the time of each questioner." Without doubt, that was the official hearing strategy of Goldman Sachs. Delaying and obstructing to obscure reality seemed to work for the company.

One would think Senator Collins, instead of feinting exasperation would be more aggressive at uncovering Goldman Sachs wrongdoing to expose the firm’s corrupt practices, ethically challenged sidestepping, influence peddling, and shake down of the US economy over just getting a sound bite or two to express indignation to the economically disadvantaged back here in Maine. But perhaps too much grilling is not a good idea when the 10th largest source of Senator Collins’ donations in her last campaign came from…drum roll please…Goldman Sachs’ sources and connections to the tune of just shy of $24,000.

But that’s the past and we have the tendency to let bygones be bygones. The redeeming opportunity is always in the future when one takes to heart the vivid evidence of Goldman Sachs wrongdoing and when one has the power as a United States Senator to correct matters, set the record strait, and prevent future recurrences of the corrupt behavior by legislatively addressing the matter on behalf of her Maine constituents. So what did Senator Collins do after that frustrating hearing? She went to the Senate floor and voted to block debate on a bill that would increase regulation of the financial system.

Note: Senator Snowe and Senator Collins voted a third time to block debate regulation of the financial system moments ago.

Late Day Update: Despite Republicans now caving to allow debate, Senator Collins only proved that she is not an independent moderate and walks lock-step with the leadership the vast majority of the time. On Today Show, Senator Collins certainly came off as out of step with reality and out of balance with her own prior actions and statements:

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Privatize what?

As deceased miners were sadly laid to final rest in West Virginia on Saturday, I just happened to tune in the Mike McConnell show on WGAN (A rebroadcast of his April 7th show). McConnell, from Cincinnati, is truly a small time radio rant fry of the libertarian bend and demonstrated that his low station count is related to his low blow delivery.

McConnell brashly blamed the mine disaster that killed 29 on government regulators of the Mine Safety & Health Administration and not the operator, Massey Energy Company. Listen to just the first 6 minutes of the show podcast to hear his solution: Privatize mine safety!

Was the government capable in any way? Well yes, but not in the way that McConnell would have you believe in his effort to bring one to the altar of almighty free unfettered markets. The MSHA had indeed logged a shocking number of citations in safety violations at the mine. But the agency is a defanged regulatory body according to the excellent reporting of Clara Bingham of the Daily Beast.

Defanged regulatory agencies are an unfortunate legacy of the Bush administration’s efforts to reduce all encumbrances upon the marketplace. Thus Massey could essentially play out a dance of pushing production up to satisfy stockholders while paying selected fines and contesting or appealing citations to bog down regulators. Massey is another classic example of an unethical company determining that violations are a cost of business that can be borne in the pursuit of profits

Thus past administrations’ made the government culpable to some extent. But without any doubt at all, the moral culpability is squarely upon Massey. Now we need to empower the MSHA with great big powerful fangs to protect miners and ignore absurd voices like that of Mike McConnell. Just like the banking and credit fiascos, deregulation can cause a crash and some crashes kill.

Stock tip of the day: SHBY

In answering criticism that he appears to favor the banking business over consumer protection, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) said on Tuesday’s (03/16/10) PBS NewsHour:

“I represent no banks. I own no stock in any financial institution. I am not beholden to anybody dealing with this.”

Actually it is the opposite we ought to be concerned about because banks and many other financial interests do own “Shelby stock”:
Shelby received $1,115,146 in campaign contributions (for the last six years of available data, Jan 1, 2004 - Dec 31, 2009)that included the following: banks and credit companies donated $315,147 to him, securities and investment firms delivered $489,150 to his coffers, and insurance companies invested $310,849 in him.

Source: MAPLight.org, a great resource.

It’s not just what a Congressperson owns and might make a buck from that we need to watch for but who owns the Congressperson and how they will make a buck from his or her votes. We need to keep a very close eye on this factor as any financial reform moves forward to become either a robust set of consumer protections or a weak screen for the financial overlords to hide behind.