It's no coincidence that Barack Obama made a blistering speech yesterday painting our financial institutions as the source of all that is evil in the United States. Obama lost healthcare. His signature issues is toast. He needs something else .. and he needs it quick. This is all about getting the people back on his side. Most Americans aren't particularly fond of their banks or credit card companies. They don't like the bank fees when they bounce a check, and they don't like the penalties when they fail to pay their bloated credit card bills when they're due. Banks send you letters with tiny print saying things you can't understand. Banks are an easy target for a demagogue.

Obama is now proposing the most sweeping and onerous new regulations on banks and financial institutions since the 1930's What happens as Obama is delivering his "Banks are evil, we are good" speech? The stock market drops to its lowest level in months. Oh ... but I'm sure one thing had nothing to do with the other.

Obama's populist assault on the world of high finance, coupled with China's tightened lending, has left Wall Street in a state of uncertainty. Is this the way to grow jobs? Think about this. All the new regulations PrezBO proposed yesterday ... tell me how they're going to grow our economy and create jobs? The only jobs created by Obama's new regulations are government jobs --- government regulatory jobs.

By the way .. before we go any further .. let me just say for the record (for all of you moonbats) that this dip has nothing to do with the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Nor did I ever say that there would be a stock market rally if Scott Brown were to win. So let's just drop that whole bit right now.

Moving merrily right along ... It certainly looks like The Community Organizer really wants to jump on the wealth envy bandwagon. This must be what he means by "getting back in touch with the American people." Obama has been complaining about "obscene bonuses" for weeks. He says, "Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail. ... We simply cannot return to business as usual."

On top of the new taxes he has already proposed for the financial industry, Obama now wants the government to limit the size and complexity of major financial institutions. In other words, the president wants our imperial federal government to limit risk. Jamie Dupree provides us with a little more detail as to what that means. The proposal would:

1. Limit the Scope-The President and his economic team will work with Congress to ensure that no bank or financial institution that contains a bank will own, invest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund, or proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving customers for its own profit. .

2. Limit the Size- The President also announced a new proposal to limit the consolidation of our financial sector. The President's proposal will place broader limits on the excessive growth of the market share of liabilities at the largest financial firms, to supplement existing caps on the market share of deposits.

Obama is ready to die on this hill. He says, "If these folks want a fight ... this is a fight I'm ready to have." The Democrats are positioning themselves to make them look like the good guys, fighting for the little man, while the Republicans are trying to defend Wall Street and big corporations. I can see it already ... this next election is going to be all about wealth envy. But then again, when isn't it?

Now .. consider this. What financial institutions out there took enormous risks over the past few decades contributing greatly to our economic problems? Well those institutions would be Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Is Obama proposing new regulations to reign in the excesses of these two government-protected, quasi-public corporations? I'm not seeing it, are you?