The lead news of the day from Washington is the request by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Fed Chariman Ben Bernanke for legislation empowering them to regulate non-bank financial services companies such as AIG.

The insurance businesses of companies like AIG are now regulated by the fifty state insurance commissioners. Their primary objective is to assure that the insurer has the financial capability to pay the claims of insureds in the respective states. But the business that caused the huge losses at AIG was a trading business which they located in London because it would be unregulated.

The banks which lost so much money in the financial derivatives business were also totally unregulated. In the case of the banks, the 107th Congress specifically exempted financial derivatives from regulation by any federal agency. That legislation, enacted in January, 2000 followed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which was enacted in 1933 following the Great Depression to prohibit commercial banks from entering the securities and insurance businesses.

The repeal of Glass-Steagall was accomplished by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, enacted November 12, 1999, only days after the election of President George W.Bush. Between 1995 and 2000, Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking. During that time he spearheaded efforts to pass banking deregulation laws. The act which he sponsored in 1999 repealed the Glass-Steagall Act which had prohibited banks from entering investment and insurance businesses.

I wonder why we don't see former Senator Phil Gramm interviewed anywhere? He was known as the "high priest of de-regulation" and listed by many as being one of the key people responsible for the current financial crisis. The Republicans blame Barney Frank for the current situation because of his unrestrained support for the Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA was certainly a contributing factor, but it's obvious that Gramm was the one who did more damage than Frank ever thought about doing by successfully spearheading the de-regulation of the banks and financial services companies and exempting risky businesses from any regulation.

So, it's pretty clear that much of the current problem was contributed to by specific legislation passed by the Congress, first permitting banks to enter the riskier securities and insurance businesses, then by prohibiting the regulation of the rapidly developing, complicated and as it turns out extremely risky financial derivatives trading businesses. Leaving those businesses unregulated was a significant cause of the financial crisis we now face.

So what should we do now? Some say that the free market will provide the best solutions to the problem. Yet it's clear that it was the unregulated free market in financial services that got us into this mess. Should the Congress pass legislation substantially increasing the ability of federal agencies to regulate banks and financial companies? Should their authority be extended to include insurance companies, superceding the authority of the states? Should legislation such as Glass-Steagall, which largely kept banks healthy for more than sixty years be re-enacted?

The banks which lost so much money in the financial derivatives business were also totally unregulated. In the case of the banks, the 107th Congress specifically exempted financial derivatives from regulation by any federal agency. That legislation, enacted in January, 2000 followed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which was enacted in 1933 following the Great Depression to prohibit commercial banks from entering the securities and insurance businesses.

The repeal of Glass-Steagall was accomplished by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, enacted November 12, 1999, only days after the election of President George W.Bush. Between 1995 and 2000, Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking. During that time he spearheaded efforts to pass banking deregulation laws. The act which he sponsored in 1999 repealed the Glass-Steagall Act which had prohibited banks from entering investment and insurance businesses.
__________________________________________________ _______________
One thing missing from this is the fact that in order for this Gramm-Leach-Blily act to pass and be signed by President Clinton was the insistance of the Clinton administration that an amendment to the bill be added saying that the bank MUST HAVE A SATISFACTORY RATING WITH ITS CRA EXAM.

This was added to the bill because President Clinton said something to the affect that he would veto anything THAT WOULD SCALE BACK MINORITY LENDING.

Wonder how it would have worked WITHOUT that ammendment !!!

The CRA add-on is true, but it doesn't appear to have been at the insistence of President Clinton. The CRA provision was actually a "trade-off" between the majority Republicans who wanted the repeal of Glass-Steagall very badly and the minority Democrats who held out for the enhancement to CRA. The timeline of the bill was as follows...

- The legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and in the U.S. House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa).

- The Senate passed the bill by a 54-44 vote along party lines (53 Republicans and one Democrat in favor; 44 Democrats opposed). The House passed a different version of the bill on an uncontested and uncounted voice vote.

- The House passed a different version of the bill. When the two chambers could not agree on a joint version of the bill in conference, the House voted by a vote of 241-132 (R 58-131; D 182-1) to instruct its negotiators to work for a law which ensured that consumers enjoyed "robust competition and equal and non-discriminatory access to financial services and economic opportunities in their communities" (i.e., protection against exclusionary redlining)

- In the conference committee, Democrats agreed to support the bill after Republicans agreed to reassert provisions of the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act.

- The final bill resolving the differences was passed by the Senate 90-8 and by the House 362-57. The legislation was signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999.

There are also some interesting facts about Senator Gramm...

- He was a Democrat for 41 years before switching to the Republican party when both the White House and the Congress came under control of the Republicans when Ronald Reagan was elected.

- When Reagan was elected president, Gramm—the brain behind the conservative "Boll Weevil" Democrats—allied with the new President to chop the (non-military) budget and cut taxes. In 1983, Democrats enraged with Gramm's treachery booted him from the House Budget Committee. Gramm quit the Democrats, resigned his seat, joined the GOP, and won his seat back in a special election.

- He was known as a heartless and brutal politician, relentlessly seeking his own agenda. He was quoted as telling a critic of his ruthless politics, "People say I don't have a heart. I do. I keep it in a quart jar on my desk."

- While he railed publicly against corporate interests, the record shows that he quietly became one of the biggest recipients of campaign contributions from energy, banking, health-care, and insurance companies.

- With regard to the CRA and red-lining, during a 2001 Senate debate over a measure to curb predatory lending he argued, "What some view as exploitive, I see as a gift. Some people look at subprime lending and see evil. I look at subprime lending and I see the American dream in action.”

- Immediately upon retiring from the Senate, he accepted a job as Vice Chairman of UBS, the giant Swiss bank, a post he still holds today. UBS was reported to be one of Gramm's largest political contributors while he was in the Senate. UBS also benefitted significantly from the repeal of Glass-Steagall, permitting them to enter the U.S. market in both banking and investment banking.

- Gramm's wife, Wendy, served as a director of Enron until it imploded as the result of the trading of commodity-based derivatives and false reporting of income.
--------------------

I guess we can all see why Senator Gramm has been voted by several sources (TIME, CNN, Slate, etc.) as among those responsible for the financial meltdown we are now experiencing. It seems to me that he was at least as responsible as Barney Frank, who has been taking most of the heat here lately. Maybe moreso.

What I find entertaining about all of this "regulate this, regulate that" is that another regulator in our Federal gov't, the FDA, can't even regulate peanuts safety.

could someone please give at least one example of something the government has taken over that is better today than before the take over?

I for one am a non believer (if I said skeptical it would mean a possibility it could happen)....first of far too many in the government is a lawyer which means they know nothing about running anything...since that all have tenure in jobs that have all the money they can spend or print with no accountability, how could they know what to do to fix a broken business of any kind.
Then get to the individual level...Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank who couldn't find their backside with a map....

In my humble opinion all that is needed is to go back to the rules of businesses of days gone by with accountability, credibility and responsibility to the share holders and employees. Then work at restoring American manufacturing because it provides jobs, pride and accomplishment while strengthening America to it's former position in the world.

We are a service provider society with no rules of the road with permissive, look the other way government.

The government has proven to be incapable of anything beyond the individual lawmakers needs.

I do wait with baited to be proven wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTK

I think almost everyone falls on the side of not believing that the government has demonstrated very much capability of regulating anything. Me included.

Having said that, it's pretty clear that the dramatic disassembling of the regulations and the regulatory agencies, particularly over the last fifteen years or so, has left us all with a twisted impression of how regulation works. I was amazed when all those lead-painted toys came into the country from China to find out that all the inspectors in the Consumer Safety Commission had been fired except one. There was--and maybe still is--only one "regulator" standing between 300 million people and dangerous consumer products. The same may have been true of the peanuts, I don't know. We've all read of the meager staffing and inspections of meat and processed meat in the country. And the complete absence of any regulators with the responsibility for inspecting meat or food imported from other countries. I'm sure there are many more examples.

Then there's either the changing of the laws resulting in diminished or diluted regulations such as the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the exemption of financial derivatives from any regulation. And the selective interpretation of other regulations such as the EPA approving the dumping of mercury from a steel mill into Lake Michigan within 20 miles of a water intake for the Chicago water system, or the interpretation of a regulation concluding that land within sight of some of our most treasured national parks in Utah could be sold to oil exploration companies.

What I'm saying is maybe we haven't seen government regulation at its finest hour in the last 15-20 years. Fortunately, some regulatory agencies still work so long as the regulations that they enforce haven't been diluted. The FAA, NHTSA, and a few others come to mind.

However the problem gets fixed--whether by new or additional regulation or some other way--it's pretty obvious that the way we've been doing it for the last 15 years didn't work.

The CRA add-on is true, but it doesn't appear to have been at the insistence of President Clinton.
__________________________________________________ __-

Just to keep your revisionist history under control....

"The bill was killed in 1998 because Senator Phil Gramm wanted the bill to expand the number of banks which no longer would be covered by the CRA. He also demanded full disclosure of any financial deals which community groups had with banks, accusing such groups of "extortion." In 1999 Senators Christopher Dodd and Charles E. Schumer broke another deadlock by forcing a compromise between Gramm and the Clinton administration which wanted to prevent banks from expanding into insurance or securities unless they were compliant with the CRA. In the final compromise, the CRA would cover bank expansions into new lines of business, community groups would have to disclose certain kinds of financial deals with banks, and smaller banks would be reviewed less frequently for CRA compliance.[31][32][33] On signing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, President Clinton said that it, "establishes the principles that, as we expand the powers of banks, we will expand the reach of the [Community Reinvestment] Act".[34]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

"So we know that the topic of that late night phone call between Bill Clinton and Sandy Weill, the man whose career began in the subprime mortgage business, was the Community Reinvestment Act. We know that Phil Gramm, who was the one most strongly pushing for gutting CRA (Leach actually supported it) threatened to torpedo the legislation if the White House did not reach an agreement."

http://thestrangedeathofliberalameri...ve-report.html

There is PLENTY.....Actually, so much I wont bore you with it but it did happen and President Clinton did in fact only sign it with the amendment !!

I am only bringing this up to inusure that your attempt to lay this at the feet of one man with no blame to be spread does not go unoticed.

This is NOT in any way a defense of Gramm or any of them. There is plenty to go around on both sides of the aisle. BUT had the amendment not been pushed, who knows how the housing market may have faired since the toxic loans may not be around to deal with and what folks are calling the basis of the financial headaches would not exist...NOT to say it wouldnt have happened anyway but lets keep the facts straight !!!!

The answer to your question Bille is NEVER. The government makes a mess out of everything they touch except what they are best at and that’s the military. There’s too much government intervention and regulation and that’s precisely why we are in the mess.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility and individual freedom? Some of the people that lost everything they had with Madoff comes to mind. Would I ever put all my financial eggs in one basket aka Madoff? NEVER. Who in their right mind would? Apparently some did, just like people are putting their trust in government now.

Here’s your answer to all of this. You can analyze, hypothesize, split hairs, dissect and discuss the details until Hell freezes over.

Our Constitution is being shredded to bits by the very people sworn to protect it. There’s a few simple things that made our Country so great in less than 300 years. Something we have that no others have. The Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

The government has so far overstepped the bounds purposely put in place to protect us, the founders must be turning over in their graves.

Until we return to these documents and put the government in check and rain them back in to their limited powers it’s only going to get worse and worse and worse and no amount or regulation, deregulation, programs, hearings, investigations, spending or taxing is going to fix it.

What’s the solution? Spend a couple weeks and re-study our Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Even more importantly, spend some time reading the Federalist Papers written by the folks who created our country. The answers are all there. They knew it even back then.

And don’t say well, things are different now and much more complicated. To a degree that is true but the fundamental principles that created this country still hold true today and work.

Ronald Reagan said “Government programs are the closest thing to eternal life we have here on earth.”

It’s called tyranny. Once it’s started there almost no going back and trust me, it's started.

The biggest problem with government regulations and their effect on an industry is the enforcement budget never matches the public expectation of how much enforcement will occur.

Full enforcement is never cheap, so very selective enforcement is what is accomplished with the limited assets available. What gets enforced is enforced, and the rest is taken care of on an as-assets-are-available basis. The problem is, the assets are never available.

So, no matter what laws are passed, and what subsequent regulations are drafted by the agency responsible to enforce the law, unless the resources (trained and qualified people in sufficient numbers, matched with the right equipment and facilities) are funded and deployed, nothing changes.

Every administration back to Washington has had this problem.

Steve, I agree with you. It's probably very unfair to criticize the FDA or the CPSC for the peanut and lead-painted toy problems. Those regulatory agencies have been dramatically downsized over recent years, leaving the public thinking they had protection when in fact they did not. We've been lucky with the FAA, even though the short-staffing of air controllers has been well documented. We'll see what happens when a huge wave of air controllers retires within the next couple of years.

Bucco, your laser-like focus on the CRA completely misses the fact that failed loans in the formerly redlined low-income areas are only a tiny portion of the "toxic assets" that caused the worldwide financial meltdown. It was the huge number of loans originated by mortgage brokers such as Countrywide and then sold to Wall Street for securitization into mortgage-backed bonds that are the greatest cause of the problem. Also, all those financial derivatives such as credit default swaps generated by AIG out of their London office. Both the mortgage brokers and investment banks and those derivatives in particular are unregulated as the result of laws passed by the 106th and 107th Congresses. I disagree with you that the cabal of Frank, Dodd and Schumer are the heart of this problem. Phil Gramm and those of his party that repealed Glass-Steagall and so substantially de-regulated the financial services industry should gain far more of your ire.

DK, your suggestions that we return to the basics are admirable. We should all go back to read and hopefully re-embrace the fundamentals that underly the formation of our country. But your question, "whatever happened to personal responsibility and individual freedom?" can be answered by noting that the failure of the government created by our founding fathers is what has gotten us to where we are. Possibly the morality of Americans has deteriorated in 300 years as well--some Americans at least--those like Bernie Madoff, the greed-driven Wall Streeters who created securities that didn't violate the law, but which they knew would default, the mortgage loan salesmen who originated loans they knew couldn't be repaid and the corporate CEO's who would do anything to achieve quarterly earnings and the resultant huge bonuses.

So that leaves us with the question, DK, will the simple return to the fundamentals solve our current problem? That should be a part of it for sure. But until it's determined that the basic morality of our society hasn't changed for the worse, something else seems to be needed to protect those of us that still embrace the same values as did our forefathers. I wish it could be as simple as increased regulation, but I'm left doubting with that idea alone. It would help, but something more is needed and I don't know what it is.

Steve, I agree with you. It's probably very unfair to criticize the FDA or the CPSC for the peanut and lead-painted toy problems. Those regulatory agencies have been dramatically downsized over recent years, leaving the public thinking they had protection when in fact they did not. We've been lucky with the FAA, even though the short-staffing of air controllers has been well documented. We'll see what happens when a huge wave of air controllers retires within the next couple of years.

Bucco, your laser-like focus on the CRA completely misses the fact that failed loans in the formerly redlined low-income areas by banks are only a tiny portion of the "toxic assets" that caused the worldwide financial meltdown. It was the huge number of loans originated by mortgage brokers such as Countrywide and an army of independent mortgage originators and then sold to Wall Street for securitization into mortgage-backed bonds that are the greatest cause of the problem. Also, all those financial derivatives such as credit default swaps generated by AIG out of their London office and investment bankers all over the world. Both the mortgage brokers and investment banks and those derivatives in particular are unregulated as the result of laws passed by the 106th and 107th Congresses. I disagree with you that the cabal of Frank, Dodd and Schumer are the heart of this problem. Phil Gramm and those of his party that repealed Glass-Steagall and so substantially de-regulated the financial services industry should gain far more of your ire.

DK, your suggestions that we return to the basics are admirable. We should all go back to read and hopefully re-embrace the fundamentals that underly the formation of our country. But your question, "whatever happened to personal responsibility and individual freedom?" can be answered by noting that the failure of the government created by our founding fathers is what has gotten us to where we are. Possibly the morality of Americans has deteriorated in 300 years as well--some Americans at least--those like Bernie Madoff, the greed-driven Wall Streeters who created securities that didn't violate the law, but which they knew would default, the mortgage loan salesmen who originated loans they knew couldn't be repaid and the corporate CEO's who would do anything to achieve quarterly earnings and the resultant huge bonuses.

So that leaves us with the question, DK, will the simple return to the fundamentals solve our current problem? That should be a part of it for sure. But until it's determined that the basic morality of our society hasn't changed for the worse, something else seems to be needed to protect those of us that still embrace the same values as did our forefathers. I wish it could be as simple as increased regulation, but I'm left doubting with that idea alone. It would help, but something more is needed and I don't know what it is.

If Liberals are going to going to target Phil Gramm, et al, regarding Gramm-Leach-Bliley and its culpability in the current crisis with "folk economics", equal time should be given to the defenses of those that supported it.

Incidentally the vote on GLB was interesting. On Nov. 4 it passed in the Senate 90-8 and the House 362-57. Clinton signed it on Nov. 12, 1999.

Wikipedia offers a starting point for the defense:

In response to criticism of his signing the bill when President, Bill Clinton said in 2008:

"I don't see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn't signed that bill ... On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I'd be glad to look at the evidence." [20]

In February 2009, one of the act's co-authors, former Senator Phil Gramm, wrote in its defense that:

"...if GLB was the problem, the crisis would have been expected to have originated in Europe where they never had Glass-Steagall requirements to begin with. Also, the financial firms that failed in this crisis, like Lehman, were the least diversified and the ones that survived, like J.P. Morgan, were the most diversified.
" Moreover, GLB didn't deregulate anything. It established the Federal Reserve as a superregulator, overseeing all Financial Services Holding Companies. All activities of financial institutions continued to be regulated on a functional basis by the regulators that had regulated those activities prior to GLB." [21]

The economists Brad DeLong (of the University of California, Berkeley) and Tyler Cowen (of George Mason University in Virginia) have both argued that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act softened the impact of the crisis.[22] Atlantic Monthly columnist Megan McArdle has argued that if the act was "part of the problem, it would be the commercial banks, not the investment banks, that were in trouble" and repeal would not have helped the situation.[23] An article in National Review has made the same argument, calling liberal allegations about the Act “folk economics”.[24]

I could find no articulate defenses of the evil twins Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in the Fannie and Freddy meltdown. I've seen videos where their own words indict them. In fact, I don't understand why they are investgating the meltdown and pointing fingers at everyone but themselves. Kind of like Charles Manson investigating the Tate/LaBianca murders or Jesse James investigating who robbed the bank. At the risk of hijacking the thread, not my intention, and rambling off point....I am reminded of Jamie Gorelick's appointment to the 911 Commission and investigating a disaster where she was a complicit actor. She also received an $800,000 bonus from Fannie Mae. Why do we tolerate these insults to our intelligence?

From a bunker in Lake Sumter Landing....have a great day in the Villages.

Until we embrace what we know has worked in the past and reject what we know will fail in the future (there’s plenty of history to learn from) we will continue down a path of failure. We have a blueprint for success. The framers knew it back then and there’s a few of us left that know it now.

It’s not the governments job nor their Constitutional mandate to protect the American people from every ill, every problem or every scoundrel. The poorly run businesses will fail and the scoundrels will end up in jail. It’s up to each individual to make choices in their own personal lives and financial lives good or bad, wise or stupid. We all have the freedom to fail and all have the freedom to succeed. We all have a chance at failing and all have a chance at succeeding. It’s not the governments job to pick winners and losers but apparently that is changing.

Do you know they are entertaining the idea of moving the USA to a global currency? Do you also know that Obama is seeking expanded powers to take over private business failing or not failing at his discretion? That alone should scare the hell out of everyone.

People better wise up to what’s going on or the USA will no longer be the USA. People came to the USA to escape tyranny. Where are we going to go?

The government didn't fail. The people running the government failed and the people who voted them in power failed. They also talk about that in the Federalist Papers.

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Steve, I agree with you. It's probably very unfair to criticize the FDA or the CPSC for the peanut and lead-painted toy problems. Those regulatory agencies have been dramatically downsized over recent years, leaving the public thinking they had protection when in fact they did not. We've been lucky with the FAA, even though the short-staffing of air controllers has been well documented. We'll see what happens when a huge wave of air controllers retires within the next couple of years.

Bucco, your laser-like focus on the CRA completely misses the fact that failed loans in the formerly redlined low-income areas by banks are only a tiny portion of the "toxic assets" that caused the worldwide financial meltdown. It was the huge number of loans originated by mortgage brokers such as Countrywide and an army of independent mortgage originators and then sold to Wall Street for securitization into mortgage-backed bonds that are the greatest cause of the problem. Also, all those financial derivatives such as credit default swaps generated by AIG out of their London office and investment bankers all over the world. Both the mortgage brokers and investment banks and those derivatives in particular are unregulated as the result of laws passed by the 106th and 107th Congresses. I disagree with you that the cabal of Frank, Dodd and Schumer are the heart of this problem. Phil Gramm and those of his party that repealed Glass-Steagall and so substantially de-regulated the financial services industry should gain far more of your ire.

DK, your suggestions that we return to the basics are admirable. We should all go back to read and hopefully re-embrace the fundamentals that underly the formation of our country. But your question, "whatever happened to personal responsibility and individual freedom?" can be answered by noting that the failure of the government created by our founding fathers is what has gotten us to where we are. Possibly the morality of Americans has deteriorated in 300 years as well--some Americans at least--those like Bernie Madoff, the greed-driven Wall Streeters who created securities that didn't violate the law, but which they knew would default, the mortgage loan salesmen who originated loans they knew couldn't be repaid and the corporate CEO's who would do anything to achieve quarterly earnings and the resultant huge bonuses.

So that leaves us with the question, DK, will the simple return to the fundamentals solve our current problem? That should be a part of it for sure. But until it's determined that the basic morality of our society hasn't changed for the worse, something else seems to be needed to protect those of us that still embrace the same values as did our forefathers. I wish it could be as simple as increased regulation, but I'm left doubting with that idea alone. It would help, but something more is needed and I don't know what it is.

My only point VK was that your honing in on Gramm is sort of crazy while ignoring the Franks, Dodd, Rangels of the last few years who had an opportunity but simply walked away....WHY is anyones guess.

The problem exists and there is substantial blame to be laid on both political parties and my only point was that I felt you were being very very shortsighted by implying that Gramm and one party is the granddaddy of bad guys when in fact the evidence points elsewhere and allways !!!

Originally Posted by dklassen

Until we embrace what we know has worked in the past and reject what we know will fail in the future (there’s plenty of history to learn from) we will continue down a path of failure. We have a blueprint for success. The framers knew it back then and there’s a few of us left that know it now.

It’s not the governments job nor their Constitutional mandate to protect the American people from every ill, every problem or every scoundrel. The poorly run businesses will fail and the scoundrels will end up in jail. It’s up to each individual to make choices in their own personal lives and financial lives good or bad, wise or stupid. We all have the freedom to fail and all have the freedom to succeed. We all have a chance at failing and all have a chance at succeeding. It’s not the governments job to pick winners and losers but apparently that is changing.

Do you know they are entertaining the idea of moving the USA to a global currency? Do you also know that Obama is seeking expanded powers to take over private business failing or not failing at his discretion? That alone should scare the hell out of everyone.

People better wise up to what’s going on or the USA will no longer be the USA. People came to the USA to escape tyranny. Where are we going to go?

The government didn't fail. The people running the government failed and the people who voted them in power failed. They also talk about that in the Federalist Papers.

I try very hard not to be callous but this administration is using the logic by the book....creat a crisis.....step in and show the govenment as the ONLY answer to help us poor folks and to your point DKLASSEN...."People better wise up to what’s going on or the USA will no longer be the USA." It is happening at light speed !!!!