Wall Street deregulation pushed by Clinton advisers, documents reveal [View all]

[mazzarro]

Last edited Sun Apr 20, 2014, 01:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Wall Street deregulation, blamed for deepening the banking crisis, was aggressively pushed by advisers to Bill Clinton who have also been at the heart of current White House policy-making, according to newly disclosed documents from his presidential library.

The previously restricted papers reveal two separate attempts, in 1995 and 1997, to hurry Clinton into supporting a repeal of the Depression-era Glass Steagall Act and allow investment banks, insurers and retail banks to merge.

A Financial Services Modernization Act was passed by Congress in 1999, giving retrospective clearance to the 1998 merger of Citigroup and Travelers Group and unleashing a wave of Wall Street consolidation that was later blamed for forcing taxpayers to spend billions bailing out the enlarged banks after the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

The White House papers show only limited discussion of the risks of such deregulation, but include a private note which reveals that details of a deal with Citigroup to clear its merger in advance of the legislation were deleted from official documents, for fear of it leaking out.

“Please eat this paper after you have read this,” jokes the hand-written 1998 note addressed to Gene Sperling, then director of Clinton's National Economic Council.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/19/wall-street-deregulation-clinton-advisers-obama

I am saddened by the fact that it was a Democratic president that essentially gave way to the ravages of the financial industry to rape and pillage the world today. And ex-President Clinton with all his acumen and political wizardry, is a major disappointment in this regard.

More also the fact that Podesta is still in the government in the Obama administration again. I wonder what other turd he will leave the country/world with by the end of the administration