Rep. Sen. Phil Gramm to blame for Financial Meltdown

Lately on this board I have been reading many posts that attribute our current financial meltdown to the "deregulation of the financial sector during the Clinton years." This is a complete misrepresentation of the events of the past. Though deregulation did occur under Clinton's administration it was the baby of Republican Senator Phil Gramm and the party he lead.

www.motherjones.com...

This article explains that it was Phil Gramm's legislation (the Gramm Leach Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernizations Act) that led to our current economic predicament.

The first act he passed, the GLB, broke down post depression era barriers which prevented the consolidation of commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companys, and securities firms. However, Gramm's most "cunning" move came in the wake of the presidential election of 2000 Gore v Bush.

en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

In December of 2000, with the house locked on budget legislation, Gramm inserted a 262 page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act into the legislation. Few lawmakers had either the opportunity or inclination to read the version of the bill Gramm inserted.

en.wikipedia.org...

The act, Gramm stated, would ensure that neither the SEC nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission got into the business of regulating financial products called swaps and would thus "protect financial institutions from overregulation" and "position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century."

However, it did not work out that way.

Instead, credit default swaps and under-regulation of the financial sector have wreaked havoc on our economy thanks to Phil Gramm and the Republican Party.

I can only hope I no longer have to hear people continue to blame the Democrats for the current economic disaster.

Wow, there are so many factors contributing to this, however, I looked at wiki answers to find out just possibly how much has been spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are estimating the cost at somewhere around 3 trillion, they are taking into account also the cost for taking care of the wounded and other associated cost which seems to be a very accurate way to assess it, just think, the combination of the credit default swaps gone awry, Madough and other greedy bastards along with money being illegally misappropriated by government officials, it is very easy to see why we are, where we are right now.

I really believe that President Obama is at the bottom of a 100 foot hole, with a shovel and no handle, also I read that the interest we pay on current debt alone is in the range of around 412 billion, what is really unbelievable are the people that are downplaying the situation and emergency in some of the MSM and cable financial programs.

How about the 2.4 trillion that went missing at the Pentagon and was being reported on by CBS I believe that would have been the biggest news, a day before 911, has the investigation into that gone anywhere?

Last, the 160 billion in gold missing from the vault at the World Trade center?
I am sure there are many more unnaccountables that have gone quietly because of lack of investigation and media focus.

are there others we can add to the list as a cumulative to the Phil Gramm contribution?




[edit on 24-1-2009 by phinubian]

Originally posted by phinubian
And lastly the 2.4 trillion that went missing at the Pentagon and was being reported on by CBS I believe, a day before 911, has the investigation into that gone anywhere?

or the 160 billion in gold missing from the vault at the World Trade center?
I am sure there are many more unnaccountables that have gone quietly because of lack of investigation and media focus.

I definitely agree with you hear. Why hasn't the MSM been screaming for an investigation into the missing money Rumsfeld reported to Congress? This should be a huge story.

this is why i hated mcCain and couldn't believe people would support him

i would yell and cry to everyone i could,,,his economic advisor caused the crisis,,,,and he is gonna fix it????


no one seemed to care

and the msm just slightly glossed over the issue

however again repub, dem they're all guilty and crooks,,,of course except for ron paul and dennis kucinich

america is guilty too,,, we keep voting "the problems" back into office

I agree.

Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was repealed on November 12, 1999, by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999) which paved way of destruction.