Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks during a news conference on the fight against childhood obesity at the offices of the Clinton Foundation in New York February 17, 2010.
They like to blame Phil Gramm for that one.
for later.
I still hold Ken Starr responsible for not going beyond his final report in all things Klinton, and not prosecuting that bastard for Treason, and malfeasance! Not to mention prosecuting that venal beotch wife of his!
That was Gramm’s baby. And I’m not really convinced it was anything more than just a little more fuel to a major fire. Gramm amde a good point that the banks hit hardest were least affected by his legislation.
Like most of the stuff on PBS, this is a pretty bogus account. Glass-Steagall was arcane, useless, and placed our financial organizations at a disadvantage with international firms that had no such restriction.
It seems to me to be an effort to misdirect blame on “de-regulation” rather than where it belongs - regulation.
The reason that derivatives of high risk mortgage backed investments existed was because lenders that were “regulated” into making high risk loans sought ways to spread the risk into packaged securities.
Fannie and Freddie effectively laundered the derivatives by buying them and re-selling them as US GOVT SECURITIES with the implied backing of the US Federal Government. These Fannie and Freddie securities were NEVER off limits for consumer bank investment, and in fact were encouraged by the Fed rules which allowed them to be held as a “cash equivalent” when determining liquidity qualifications.
Citing the repeal of Glass-Steagall as a major factor in the financial meltdown is a smoke screen, and trying to tag Bill Clinton with it is just a way to sound “non-partisan” while pushing for higher regulation and further intrusion into the private sector.
there is enough blame to go around...
Glass-Steagall needs to be un-repealed
it has to be George Bush’s fault, somehow he must have been involved
You hit the nail on the head! Clinton’s repeal allowed Banks to invade markets they had no understanding of, the result was derivatives insured by under capitalized agencies, all overlooked by regulators, in the name of profit!