Operation Choke Point was an extra-legal attempt by the Obama administration to economically attack businesses that it disliked. It circumvented the rule of law by giving banks incentive to discriminate against a list of businesses. The list of busineseses were those it disagreed with on philosophical and political grounds. Those businesses included firearms and ammunition dealers.
The Trump Justice Department is ending an Obama-era program that had attempted to cut off credit to shady businesses but came under fire from Republicans for unfairly targeting gun dealers and other legitimate operations. Just days after top House Republicans had pressed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shutter Operation Choke Point, the department confirmed in a response letter that the program is dead.From reason.com:
The repudiation of Operation Choke Point is a welcome development, says Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute.The process circumvented the entire check and balance system on government power designed into the Constitution. It should have been grounds for serious action by the Republican Congress. It is gone now.
"It should serve as a warning that the government doesn't get to flag for banks—or businesses generally—which legal-but-suspect domestic customers it would like them to ostracize," Olson told Reason on Friday. "Those in power must refrain from signaling that they'd be pleased if certain categories of otherwise legal customer get cut off from their access to economic life." Operation Choke Point began as an extension of the Obama administration's Financial Fraud Task Force, but the dragnet investigation was never given proper statutory authority by either the administration or Congress. In fact, details about Operation Choke Point were deliberately withheld from Congress at first, a fact The Wall Street Journal uncovered in 2013.h
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch
What can you do? It's over Johnny. Close the door on the way out
ReplyDeleteThere has been an effort to get rid of cash for decades and use plastic money only. No real money changes hands in an electronic transfer. When I had my businesses I dealt with cash only. Later I did go to a credit card system but to get the business going I never used credit for my self or my inventory. People that use credit to build their inventory are asking for trouble. sell what your customers want to buy not what you want to sell. any thing that does not sell fast is taking up space for things that could sell and keep your money flow going. How much do you think it costs to have a wall full of new firearms on display. How often do you sell a new firearm especially in a small town. keep your over head costs down and you can sell much more inventory for less. the inventory stays fresh. You are not paying interest on items that just sit there and look nice. I asked my customers if they want nice displays or lower prices. I eventually built up an inventory and had displays as the list of satisfied customers grew the business and displays grew. When you build a business if you plan to get rich quick you will fail. Using credit for inventory just makes you fail faster. Paying interest on inventory that is not selling drains your resources. Invest your profit to increase your inventory what is paid for costs you nothing to set on the shelf. Second business I had I let my wife run it before I knew it she had 12,000 dollars in my credit cards and I exploded.
ReplyDeleteThe way to avoid needing credit is to make your prices the incentive to pay cash.
ReplyDelete