“The new rules will cover all financial institutions, including those not now covered by any pay rules because they are not receiving federal bailout money.” — Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay, NY Times, March 21, 2009 [emphasis added]

Under the Obama administration theory of never letting a good crisis go to waste, it looks like PBO is planning to exploit popular outrage over the AIG bonuses to impose limit compensation not merely on employees of firms receiving bailout funds, but on those of all financial institutions.

This is nothing less than wage controls.  And of course we know the last president to try this [to no good effect].

Since his middle name has never been a big political plus, perhaps PBO would henceforth prefer to be known as . . . Barack Milhous Obama.

Note: since posting this item I’ve heard from readers letting me know that The Great One, Mark Levin, has been using the “Barack Milhous Obama” sobriquet for a long time.  I’m a fan of Mark’s, but we don’t get his program here, and I had been unaware that he had coined the name.  I gather Mark does so as a matter of general applicability, whereas I was drawing a specific parallel between Nixon’s wage-price controls and the wage controls Obama might be proposing.