How Obama intends to use corporations to effect social change

The Weekly Standard reports:

President-elect Obama will run a government that is heavily entangled in the formerly private sector. President Bush has already overseen the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the American International Group. The Federal Reserve has poured billions into the commercial paper and other debt markets. The federal government now owns shares of the nation's largest financial institutions. And with hundreds of billions yet to be spent, industry after industry is lining up at the trough.

Bush authorized these interventions in order to prevent a systemic collapse of global finance. Banks are the economy's circulatory system. They allow the marketplace to function. This is why Bush is reluctant to bail out the Detroit auto companies. In his view, such a bailout would interfere with the creative destruction natural to the marketplace.

But the Democrats see things differently. For them, TARP is a backdoor through which they can manage the economy in accordance with liberal nostrums. Senate Democrats like Christopher Dodd and Charles Schumer want to set compensation rates and loan criteria for the banks that have accepted federal money. They want to overrule the boards and shareholders who normally determine CEO salary and bonuses. They want to force financial institutions to lend to consumers who may not be able to repay the debt. This, even though loan defaults are what got us into trouble in the first place.

For more on the history of corporate socialism in America.You'll learn about the founding of AIG and the Fed,and much more.