It’s like…hard to explain. Trust us.
Here’s another sublime absurdity brought to you from the folks on Planet (US) Congress (via Reuters:)
Federal Reserve and Treasury officials said on Wednesday they were struggling to craft rules to ban bank and credit card payments to illegal Internet gambling sites because federal law is unclear about what type of gambling is illegal online. “That is something we’re really struggling with,” Louise Roseman, the Fed’s director of reserve bank operations and payment systems, told a House Financial Services subcommittee. “The challenge we have is interpreting … federal laws that Congress itself isn’t sure what they mean,” Roseman said.
But perhaps the solution is obvious: why not send all transactions to a Congressional sub-committee for prior vetting? I mean this is complex stuff, it depends on so many things! For instance, did the individual do the trade while wearing a bathrobe? Does it involve a counterparty who contributed to my general campaign? I mean there are so many subtleties - not the kind of stuff that is easy to write into a bill… It’s a big responsibility but Congress has a duty of care to certain incumbent operators and lobbyists citizens to make sure that they are protected from themselves.
