"I did NOT screw the US economy..."
Ms. Lewinsky thinks he doth protest too much.
Posted on 02/17/2009 10:58:42 AM PST by marshmallow
Given the sweep and severity of today's global economic crisis, it would seem there's plenty of blame to go around. But Bill Clinton doesn't think any of it should fall on his shoulders.
On Monday morning's Today Show, Ann Curry's interview with the former president - recorded over the weekend outside a Clinton Global Initiative event in Texas - addressed Clinton's inclusion on TIME's list of the "25 People to Blame" for the global economic collapse. "Oh no," he responded, "My question to them is: Do any of them seriously believe if I had been president, and my economic team had been in place the last eight years, that this would be happening today? I think they know the answer to that: No." (See TIME's list of the 25 people to blame for the collapse)
The magazine's story, which apportioned blame widely between such figures as Countrywide co-founder Angelo Mozilo, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld and President George W. Bush, zeroed in on two specific economic policy decisions made during the Clinton administration. Clinton ushered out the Glass-Steagall Act, which for decades had separated commercial and investment banking, and signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act - which exempted all derivatives, including the now-notorious credit-default swaps, from federal regulation. His administration also loosened housing rules, which added pressure on banks to lend in low-income neighborhoods.
"None of it was an endorsement of permissive lending and risk-taking," the magazine concluded. "But if you believe deregulation is to blame for our troubles, then Clinton earned a share too."
In a separate interview this past weekend with CNN, Clinton did allow that his administration could have done more to "set in motion some more formal regulation of the derivatives market," but he also vehemently denied that the repeal.........
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"I did NOT screw the US economy..."
Ms. Lewinsky thinks he doth protest too much.
Thanks for the post.
“I did ‘not’ have Keynesian relations with the economy”
The sabotage of our economy was truly a bipartisan effort.
I blame him.
He’s part of the problem. FDR could have reformed the Fed, but opted for the New Deal. Nixon took us off the Gold Standard. Carter was an idiot. Obstructionist Dems blocked the Balanced Budget Amendment under Reagan. Too many people put party over country when Perot ran. 41 decided we should buy the world a Coke. Clinton gutted oversight. 43 saw the cliff coming and hit the gas instead of the brakes. Obama gets to pound the last coffin-nail.
The question is - how do we dig ourselves back out? What can we do to make sure we’re not handing another time-bomb to the next generation?
The question is what do we do about it?
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