Don't need a new co-opted fed agency

An FFA will not restore credibility to Financial World

On April Fools Day, Scott Burns, with whom I rarely disagree, proposed formation of a new federal organization, to be called the Federal Financial Authority (FFA) and which might restore lost credibility in our current financial world.

He proposes that, "It (FFA) would place warning labels on sub-prime mortgages and securities derived from them. …. rate the safety of investment banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and commercial banks." He suggests it would be similar to the Food and Drug Administration.

Better that we prosecute, to the letter of the law, unscrupulous mortgage lenders, investment banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and commercial banks who scam the public. Better we prosecute than bail out.

What we do not need is another federal agency, birthed by noble ideas for problem fixing, but which are slowly remolded by the problem makers to become part of the problem.

You may remember the FDA was created to protect America's eaters and their food supplies from unscrupulous processed food producers. Quietly, it has become an arm of those same processed food producers.

In 1938, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was passed by Congress, and imposed strict rules requiring the word "imitation" appear on any food product that was, well, an imitation. The imitation rule protected the public from being fooled by the labeling and advertising by food producers.

The act included terms such as, "… there are certain traditional foods that everyone knows, such as bread, milk and cheese, and that when consumers buy these foods, they should get the foods they are expecting … [and] if a food resembles a standardized food but does not comply with the standard, that food must be labeled as an 'imitation.'"

What a wonderful idea, everyone thought. Everyone except the processed food producers. After all, it's hard to compete with real food if forced to use the word 'imitation' on labels for imitation cheese, milk or bread. It took until 1973 when, under pressure by the food industry, the FDA, not Congress which created the act, rewrote the "imitation" food act.

The result is that today chemical compounds sold as butter spreads, margarine, cheese blocks, extruded yogurt-like products, etc., need not be tinted pink or labeled "imitation" to warn the public that they are not buying or eating real food.

No, the FDA has precipitated the phenomenon we see today, where Americans are the most overfed and undernourished population in the world. We do not need more governmental authorities to regulate unscrupulous businesses. We need to force America's businesses, via laws on the books today, into a rebirth as responsible businesses that serve the public with honesty and integrity.

Let them grow wealthy the old-fashioned way and like the rest of us, through hard work.

Gail Talbot

Huntley