To Nationalize or Not to Nationalize?

Would you let Timmy Geithner or Barack Obama run your business?

Someday soon you might not have a choice.

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president's Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.

And don't think they aren't chomping at the bit to get started.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he hopes "it doesn't take too long" to convince Congress to approve new authority to oversee financial firms.

The administration is pushing the idea of an overarching regulator, such as the Federal Reserve, to have the ability to take over non-bank financial entities whose failure could topple the entire financial system.

Suddenly there are a lot of companies that are just too big to fail? Or too big a target for the grubby hands of the socialists in Washington?

Where do we draw the line next? Should government officials be given authority to take over coal mines, or railroads? Oil and energy companies? How about sports teams or record companies? Sears & Roebuck? Target? American Airlines? Hospital corporations? Kentucky Friend Chicken/Taco Bell?

Which sectors of the economy are off limits and which are not? Since every business and industrial sector deals in money, and since money seems to be thing that most interests the federal government these days, what are to be the rules?

Why would I invest a dime in anyone's stock right now?