Larry Kudlow, Wall Street Detective!

Try not to laugh to the point of having a bladder accident or ceasing to breath, as the header is just a wee joke. CNBC's number one Wall Street shill has not turned into a hard charging crusader against Wall Street treachery. However, he may be showing signs of having the semblance of a brain by allowing himself to ask the following obvious question: "Is the whole TARP a criminal enterprise? Well, Larry, in case you hadn't noticed, or did notice but once denied, the "No Banker Left Behind" bailout bill, (aka TARP, which stands for Troubled Asset Relief Pogrom, er Program), was heaped on the American public in much the same manner as many of the legislative monstrosities of Mussolini's government were foisted on the Italian people, via fear, menace and threats. Nothing good from such rotten seeds may grow.

What's more, recall that the foister in chief at the time, Secretary of The Treasury, Hank Paulson, asked for, nay demanded, at the outset, plenary powers in the disposal of approximately seven hundred billion dollars. "Give me (unfettered) liberty, said Mr. Paulson, or I'll give you (financial) death." He pretty much got his way on that one, as very little oversight was applied to the operation of the TARP. So it should come as no surprise, except perhaps to a super shill like Larry Kudlow, that Special Inspector of the TARP, Neil Barofsky, has uncovered enough corruption to begin twenty, that's right, twenty criminal investigations into such Wall Street staples as securities fraud, tax-law violations, insider trading and mortgage modification fraud. I love that locution- mortgage, ahem, modification. "Yes, sir, we've modified that thar mortgage so ya'll will hardly even recognize that it is a mortgage."

As Mr. Barofsky has offered, and as I strongly suggested to Barney Frank in the numerous faxes I sent him at the time the TARP's funding was being debated by Congress, the TARP program is very susceptible to corruption. Specifically, Mr. Barofsky has asserted that "the very character of the bailout program makes it inherently vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse, including significant issues related to conflicts of interest facing fund managers, collusion between participants and vulnerabilities to money laundering.”

And in a real howler, Mr. Kudlow notices that present Treasury Secretary, Turbo Tax dodgin' Tim Geithner, "has said very little about this. "Kudlow also wonders why all the suspected corruption is not being reported on the front page of our better news print organs? The Fourth Estate has long since failed to report adequately the news we Americans most need to hear. And where the gaudy crimes of the diabolic duo (that is Wall Street and the federal government) are concerned, they certainly haven't been anywhere near the watchdog required. No, in the aggregate, they are more like spoon fed disseminators of whatever party line suits the Powers that Be.

Gil Scott-Heron is famous for giving us the phrase, "The revolution will not be televised." Obviously Mr. Scott-Heron thought that there would at least be a revolution. I'd like to think so too, but with so little stirring in the face of all the outrageous revelations ( and with apologies to tea party participants) I am beginning to have my doubts.