Mayberry On The Potomac?...

Deputy Barney Fife & Sheriff Andy Taylor
Mayberry, N.C.

If you are of a certain age, then you are familiar with "The Andy Griffith Show" - a TV classic which had a long run in the 1960's.  (Re-runs are abundant!)  Do any of y'all remember that show? 

Ron Howard, who is now a well known movie producer, was the child star "Opie" in the series!

Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith) and Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts) were the forces for law and order in the small fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina (pretty closely modeled on Griffin's actual hometown of Mt. Airy, N.C.!)  

Most episodes dealt little with managing crime waves, "drive-bys", and gang violence (which had yet "to be invented" in rural N.C.) and more to do with the Sheriff's genial efforts to keep his volatile, hyper-nervous, prone to be "trigger-happy" deputy between the ditches!

The recurring theme was that Barney could be

An expired parking meter !!

counted upon to go off "half-cocked" under the simplest of pressures and was sure to suffer from a severely "swelled head" when "put in charge".  A little power and authority just seem to go to some folks head… (it's probably because they're "frustrated"!)

"I'll ask questions
later…"

Got me to wondering if some of Sheriff Taylor's tools for managing Barney might not be appropriate to help tamp down some of the recent, volatile, hyper-nervous regulatory activity we've seen coming out of Alexandria - "trigger happy" $1 million late report fines,  "frustrating"  home-based CUs, "half-cocked" stress testing, and a "swelled headed", IMCR (see 1/29/2014 post) "we are the deciders" risked-based capital proposal.

"Slow up now, Barney!"

The Sheriff's trick which worked best and appeared to assure "safety and soundness" in Mayberry was to…

Fire! Aim! Ready!

… give Barney only one bullet and make "d-sure" he had to keep it in his pocket!

  ("Know whadda mean, Barn?")