For starters the National Commission on Federal Election Reform has recommended at least 87 improvements to US elections.
Some of them are: standardized photo ID's for all voters; state, not local control over voter registration lists; verifiable paper trails for electronic voting machines; uniform statewide standards for counting provisional ballots; and moving towards the nonpartisan administration of elections.
Most countries in Europe and several in Asia already have these minimum standards. Just to take two examples. Don’t you think it’s ridiculous that we allow votes to be tabulated with no means of physically verifying the accuracy of the count afterwards? A great many US counties use voting machines that are incapable of this. And in most US states, the people in charge of the elections are political, rather than non-partisan. Talk about opening up elections to mischief. (Think Cook County Illinois and Mayor Richard Daley sending dead bodies to vote).
Nearly every nation in the European community already has these minimum requirements in place and many third world countries do as well. Many countries also place strict limits on election spending and funding. Here, the US government is pretty much owned and operated by the folks who contributed the most money, rather than the voters.
washingtonpost.com 
As for the transparency and honesty of the US financial markets, all countries have had their share of fraud and theft from shareholders, but a key problem in the US markets is that special interests dictate far too many regulatory functions. Accounting firms, for example write most of the legislation which controls how and when companies release financial information. An excellent book on the subject is “The Number” by Alex Berenson, who graphically shows how even the SEC, our markets watchdog has had its hands tied by budget cuts. As our markets have grown larger and more complex, the SEC has actually had its budget reduced! Markets in Europe have much stronger regulatory agencies. And of course all those countries have their scandals, but ours are world class.
Money goes where it feels welcome and despite what some on CNBC like to refer to as the “socialists” in Europe, take a look at the European markets compared to ours in the last couple years. quote.yahoo.com
Am I crazy about government regulation? No. But I like to think when I hit the interstate there are speed limits and troopers around who will keep things under control. If the US financial markets were interstates, the troopers would be riding bicycles and carrying pop guns :)
Since CNBC is owned by a multinational corporation, GE, with many irons in the fire, conflicts of interest in all directions, we are seldom going to get a clear-eyed assessment of our own markets. I know some here will disagree. That’s your right. But patriotism is not blind flag-waving, its knowing your country can do better and seeking improvement. Stepping off the soap box now. |
