Charles Krauthammer has a new column on what he calls "executive overreach" — executive branch officials acting beyond the authority they have been granted by Congress, and so escaping the consent of the governed. He writes:
How did we get here? I blame Henry Paulson. (Such a versatile sentence.) The gold standard of executive overreach was achieved the day he summoned the heads of the country's nine largest banks and informed them that henceforth the federal government was their business partner. The banks were under no legal obligation to obey. But they know the capacity of the federal government, when crossed, to cause you trouble, endless trouble. They complied.