The ‘Clinton Bubble’: How Clinton Democrats Fostered the 2008 Economic Crisis

[99th_Monkey]

The ‘Clinton Bubble’: How Clinton Democrats Fostered the 2008 Economic Crisis
Posted on Sep 16, 2010 * TruthDig.com

By Robert Scheer

Truthdig reposts an excerpt from Robert Scheer’s 2010 book “The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street.” This is the story of the groundwork laid for the collapse of the U.S. economy—a catastrophe from which working blacks in particular still have not recovered.

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ *
The Great American Stickup
From Chapter 1
“It Was the Economy, Stupid”

Since the collapse happened on the watch of President George W. Bush at the end of two full terms in office, many in the Democratic Party were only too eager to blame his administration. Yet while Bush did nothing to remedy the problem, and his response was to simply reward the culprits, the roots of this disaster go back much further, to the free-market propaganda of the Reagan years and, most damagingly, to the bipartisan deregulation of the banking industry undertaken with the full support of “liberal” President Clinton. Yes, Clinton. And if this debacle needs a name, it should most properly be called “the Clinton bubble,” as difficult as it may be to accept for those of us who voted for him.

Clinton, being a smart person and an astute politician, did not use old ideological arguments to do away with New Deal restrictions on the banking system, which had been in place ever since the Great Depression threatened the survival of capitalism. His were the words of technocrats, arguing that modern technology, globalization, and the increased sophistication of traders meant the old concerns and restrictions were outdated. By “modernizing” the economy, so the promise went, we would free powerful creative energies and create new wealth for a broad spectrum of Americans—not to mention boosting the Democratic Party enormously, both politically and financially.
And it worked: Traditional banks freed by the dissolution of New Deal regulations became much more aggressive in investing deposits, snapping up financial services companies in a binge of acquisitions. These giant conglomerates then bet long on a broad and limitless expansion of the economy, making credit easy and driving up the stock and real estate markets to unseen heights. Increasingly complicated yet wildly profitable securities—especially so-called over-the-counter derivatives (OTC), which, as their name suggests, are financial instruments derived from other assets or products—proved irresistible to global investors, even though few really understood what they were buying. Those transactions in suspect derivatives were negotiated in markets that had been freed from the obligations of government regulation and would grow in the year 2009 to more than $600 trillion. ...

Beginning in the early ’90s, this innovative system for buying and selling debt grew from a boutique, almost experimental, Wall Street business model to something so large that, when it collapsed a little more than a decade later, it would cause a global recession. Along the way, only a few people possessed enough knowledge and integrity to point out that the growth and profits it was generating were, in fact, too good to be true.

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/the_great_american_stickup_is_bush_really_20100916

[doc03]

1. So now Clinton is blamed for the great recession 7 years after leaving office

right out of the Republican talking points.

[99th_Monkey]

2. That's the most ridiculous claim I've seen all day, and that's saying something.

Robert Sheer's bio:

Robert Scheer is an American journalist who writes a column for Truthdig that is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate in publications such as The Huffington Post and The Nation.

[doc03]

4. So we post Republican talking points here now, may as well go to

a Republican group.

[99th_Monkey]

5. Rob't Fucking Sheer is NOT a "RW Republican". Please stop with the lying. nt

[doc03]

6. I can turn on Fox News and get the same bullshit. The seeds for that recession started way back

in the Carter Administration with deregulation. But you skip Reagan, Bush I and II and blame it on Clinton because you support Sanders.
Next week we start early voting in Ohio and I will be sure of putting my vote in for Clinton just because of the bitterness shown by
Sanders supporters on DU. I will not vote for a socialist for president either .

[litlbilly]

7. You go right ahead and do that. Maybe you'll learn someting:)

[99th_Monkey]

8. Vote for whomever you like.

But this nonsensical mantra from Hillarians incessantly dismissing well-sourced information
-- even from TruthDig, HuffPo, NYTimes, et. al. -- suggesting Hillary is less than perfect, as
being "RW Bullshit!!" is infantile and contributes nothing to the conversation.

[thesquanderer]

9. The irony is that Hillary partially blamed it on Sanders' 2000 vote for the CFMA...

...her husband's bill, which deregulated derivatives. That was at the recent New Hampshire debate.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Bill Clinton was paid $16.5 million to advise for-profit colleges on defrauding students.

[AzDar]

10. K & R

[fwiff]

11. The Republicans had been trying this ever since FDR

They finally found a willing Democrat in Clinton.

Democrats wouldn't have voted for it if they weren't supporting a Dem president.

It's more complicated than "Clinton's fault", but they (repubs) couldn't have done it without him.

[99th_Monkey]

12. Good point: "It's more complicated than 'Clinton's fault'"

"...but they (repubs) couldn't have done it without him"