Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Primer on the Financial Debacle

or, how the hell did we get here?
Look, this whole thing is simple and easy to understand. Bankers are greedy bastards so they need regulating. As a result of the 1929 stock market crash, resulting in a deep depression by 1932, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was passed to protect homeowners. It was a measure that prohibited the mixing of banking, insurance, and investments.

Banking deregulation started in earnest during the Carter admin in 1978. Over a period of 20 years, Glass-Steagall was pecked at and undermined and weakened. It was finally killed altogether in 1999 with the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. Every Democrat but 5 voted for it in the Senate and all but 1 Republican voted nay. John McCain was the single Senator who did not vote.

Read the rest by Ron4Hill at Hillary Forum.

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