William Howard Taft Quotes
The steps which my predecessor took and the legislation passed on his recommendation have accomplished much, have caused a general halt in the vicious policies which created popular alarm, and have brought about in the business world a much higher regard for existing law.
Theodore Roosevelt had made many changes to control corporate rapaciousness and disregard for the law. Taft, his handpicked successor, wanted to roll back some of the regulations feeling that the problem of corporate corruption and venality had been solved. TR did not agree and the men’s close friendship dissolved over this issue—so much so that Roosevelt ran against Taft in the 1912 election.
William Howard Taft, 1857-1930, 27th President of the United States (Republican, OH), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1909
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
During The Depression although business in general was doing very poorly, there were a few which had grown immensely powerful and abused the power as there was little or no regulation at the time.
This was a very important quotation because Cox was a strong advocate of deregulation and voluntary regulation, and that is why he was appointed to head the SEC by George W. Bush. He was the leading Republican expert on Regulation of the Stock Markets and sale of public securities. However when the Meltdown of 2008 hit, it was clear to all but the extreme ideologues that some Federal regulation was necessary. Nonetheless, it took several years to reform the regulations for the financial industry with the Banks and Wall Street fighting it all the way and by that time the Republican Party had been so dominated by ideological conservatives that the views of Cox and others no longer had much influence. They fought the Dodd-Frank reforms to go preserve self regulation to a great extent.
Criticizing federal regulators in the 1989 Savings and Loan scandal:
The term “great corporations” had been in common use to indicate large corporations with no implications of quality as “great” would imply today. Search for “great corporations” to see the common usage.
This extreme view of regulation is one of the many views that caused the Nevada voters to reject her.
TR came from a wealthy, upper class family, and because of his position favoring regulation of corporations he was called a traitor to his class by many.
The Commission is not a law enforcement agency in the sense that it can initiate or prosecute a civil or criminal lawsuit against a party that is breaking the law. The Commission however, can refer cases to the Justice Department and turn over their findings with a recommendation to prosecute. However, under George W. Bush, the policy was not to even do that. Chairman Majoras actually persuaded the Bush Justice Department to terminate efforts to prosecute Intel and other companies that previous Commissions had recommended prosecuting.
in the Meltdown of 2008 Gramm was one of the most ideological deregulators in Congress. As the Meltdown of 2008 hit, he immediately made this statement when few people even knew the extent of what had happened, much less why it happened. Gramm’s instant absolution of deregulation as one of the causes is a classic case of denial. There were few economic issues of controversy that did not contribute to the totality of causes. And a few years later Gramm was one of the very few ideologues who still believed that deregulation did not have a role in the Meltdown and the Great Recession that followed. For a contrast from the expert in his own party, see {638023}.
William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position he held until a month before his death.
