Why we need government--and regulation

Why do we need government? Why do we need government regulations?

Look no further than this headline from The Wall Street Journal a few days ago:

Interest Rate Probe Escalates

Barclays Agrees to Pay Record Fine; Emails Show Traders Tried to Manipulate Libor

Barclays PLC agreed to pay $453 million in fines to U.S. and U.K. regulators after admitting that traders and executives tried to manipulate interest rates tied to loans and financial contracts around the world.

If the 2008 national and international collapses of the world's financial markets weren't enough for you, or the collapse of Enron or the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or one of the many other big catastrophes in the last few years weren't enough, this should do it for you.

Barclays Bank, in England, was just big and powerful enough to do their best to try to manipulate international interest rates to go in their favor. This, this is why we need something bigger and stronger than corporations--to control them. To keep their greed in check.

If you don't either already know this or understand it, you need to see one of the many documentaries on these collapses.

We need government as an independent check on corporations and the world's wealthy.

This, above, got Barclays a nearly half billion dollar fine.

And the thing is, the examination is still going on.

Who knows what they did we don't know?

As if that isn't enough, Glaxo-Smith-Kline of the pharmaceutical industry was also fined. This time for three billion dollars--that's $3 billion--for fraud, for stealing from the American public:

GlaxoSmithKline Settles Largest Health Care Fraud Case In U.S. History

WASHINGTON (AP) — GlaxoSmithKline LLC will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to promoting two popular drugs for unapproved uses and to failing to disclose important safety information on a third in the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, the Justice Department said Monday.

The $3 billion fine also will be the largest penalty ever paid by a drug company, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said. The corporation also agreed to be monitored by government officials for five years to attempt to ensure the company's compliance, Cole said.

Small government? Sure. You bet.

No government? Not a chance. Weak government? Ditto. No, thank you.

So, Libertarians, you can count me out, thanks very much.

Link to original article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304830704577493092589081130.html

"Inside Job" (documentary): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/

"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016268/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/02/gsk-fraud_n_1643186.html