Should Banks be allowed to Gamble?

Banks are supposed to finance business activity and economic growth.  Make loans to home buyers and car buyers.  Loan to businesses to purchase inventory, build new plants, purchase production equipment.  We all agree that this kind of lending makes the economy grow.
   But if you are a bank with a pile of money, there are other things you can do, things which to my way of thinking are just gambling.  If the bank bets right it makes money.  But no matter how it bets, it does nothing for the economy.  In the gambling department we have commodities trading, foreign exchange trading, playing the stock market, sub prime mortgages, credit default swaps, Greek bonds, mortgage backed securities, and whatever it was that JP Morgan lost $2 billion doing.  That deal was so opaque that even the Wall St Journal hasn't figured it out yet.
  Bankers love to gamble because the return can be very high.  And the risks always seem so small.  A bank can make more money gambling than it can doing 30 year fixed rate mortgages.
   Trouble is, when a big bet goes bad it can wreck the entire world economy.  The current Great Depression 2.0 was triggered by Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac (special purpose government run banks) and some of the stupider Wall St banks got to playing with mortgage backed securities, especially the securities backed with sub prime mortgages.  This bit of gambling caused the economic crash that we still haven't fixed.
   Maybe we should forbid banks from gambling?
Limit banks to doing mortgages and car loans and making loans to real businesses, i.e. businesses that make things, grow things, mine things, sell things, transport things, or furnish telecommunications, gas, and electric power.  No loans to "businesses" that just play the various markets.   No loans to hedge funds or stock brokers or other banks.

I hate to say it, but Obama did something right

His new plan for illegal immigrants under 30.  Any who came here as children, and have kept their noses clean, graduated high school and/or served in the military, we let 'em stay.  at least for a couple of  years. I'm for it.  If you are a kid, and your parents cross the US border bringing you with them,  there is nothing a kid can do about it.  If the kid grows up in America, there is really no place to deport him too with any justice.   We as country are better off with decent young people as citizens, contributing to the legal economy than we are with illegal aliens hunted by Mr. Migra and willing to do almost anything to avoid getting caught.
  For a second point, I strongly believe that anyone who has served in the US military should be granted citizenship upon his honorable discharge from the service.  You cannot find better citizens than veterans, anywhere, anyplace.  For that matter immigrants make the most loyal citizens we have.  The United States needs loyal citizens.  What makes the US a superpower is a large and loyal population, and we need to keep it that way.
  Carping about immigrants taking jobs from citizens is small minded union talk.  We have jobs in America, and we can make more of them.
   Too bad Obama cannot do this kind of thing the right way, by getting a law thru Congress.  It's a measure of how ineffectual Obama is that he didn't propose a law, lobby Congress to pass it, made the needed concessions here and there to get it thru.  He cannot negotiate worth a damn, and after three and a half years few in Congress trust him much.  It's hard to cut a deal with a man you don't trust, 'cause you fear he will welsh on it.  Nobody wants to be taken for a sucker.

Marinade for Chicken

Marinaded chicken thighs in white wine and lemon juice with some Bell's Poultry Seasoning. Gave 'em about any hour and then grilled 'em on the Weber. Did good things for the flavor

100,000 Documents

That is how much paper DOJ churned out over the Fast & Furious debacle.  That's a scary amount of paper.  Suppose each document takes one hour to write, email, read and backup.  That's 100,000 manhours just to do the paperwork.  One guy works 40 hours in a week, 50 weeks a year.  One man year is then 2000 hours and it takes 50 man years just to do the paperwork, a basic time wasting task.  Want to bet it took less than a couple of man years to walk all those guns? 
  So we have a couple of man years to do something totally stupid, lethal, and illegal, and 50 man years to cover it up, and sweep it under the rug,
  Our tax dollars at work.

U.S. Anti Doping Agency?

Never heard of them before.  Now that they are going after Lance Armstrong, they made the TV news.  Armstrong retired from bike racing some years ago.  Armstrong has denounced them as a spite motivated witch hunt.  Since USADA has no legal powers, it's a trial by public relations.  Armstrong is a household name, and always looked  like a regular guy.  USADA is a no body and will need the strongest of evidence to win their case.  It will be hard for them to convince me that lab work on blood samples three years old means anything. 
   It also depends upon how the media feel about Lance Armstrong.  If they decide they don't like him, they will slant stories against him, which creates a powerful headwind. 

Kelly Ayotte looking and sounding good on TV

Our new senator, Kelly Ayotte has only been in Washington for two years.  But she won some important committee assignments, and has established a useful relationship with the TV news.  She has been on the air repeatedly, commenting upon various matters.  On air she speaks well and knowledgeably.  And she leads the discussion, unlike the usual pol who just responds to the TV  people's questions.
  Good work.
   And Kelly shows up a lot better than Jean Shaheen, our other senator.

Eurovising the Euro Banks

Both the Wall St Journal and the Economist are calling for this.  Right now a Euro bank is chartered . regulated, and insured by a national government.  Some governments do a good job (Germany) and others don't (Greece).  The idea is to create a European Bank Regulator with power to regulate all Euro banks.  This would make banks in shaky countries look stronger and reduce incentives to pull deposits out of shaky countries and put them in Germany.
   Probably not a bad idea, especially if you believe in creating a United States of Europe, which a lot of Euros do.
   Such a Euro Bank Regulator would have a lot of power.  It could set bank capital requirements, set pay of bank officers, set what businesses banks could invest/gamble in.  It would audit bank books and manage a Euro Deposit Insurance Corp.
    Was I a Euro citizen I'd like to know who will run such a thing.  Would this Euro Regulator be answerable to Euro voters?  Or would it be a Brussels bureaucrat appointment deal, with lucky bureaucrats serving for life?
    Of course the Euro's are often oblivious of such issues.  I was in Europe on business back when they were putting the Euro together.  None of the Europeans I chatted with at the time had the slightest  idea of the power of what they were creating, or any interest in who would control it.  None of the Euros understood that the second most important official in America, right behind the president, is the chairman of the Federal Reserve. 
    I guess I'd be a little more enthusiastic about the idea if I thought there was anyone in Europe smart enough to do a good job running it.