As Stated in Part I of this series of OPs,
I was looking into exactly what happened to the economy?
How did we get there, and who was to blame?
There's been a lot of talk about Larry Summers,
and Tim Geithner as being two main responsible parties,
which has prompted me to look further into the question
of what exactly happened.
According to what I have read,
there were two laws that were passed,
one in late 1999 and one in 2000,
both which set up the current legal conditions,
to make legal what we now consider weaknesses in our financial foundation.
The changes in the law accomplished by these two bills,
Coupled with a reign of deregulation
and laxed regulatory enforcements suffered
during George W. Bush's 2 terms in office,
are responsible for creating the climate that
allowed our current Financial Condition.
The Second bill is described below as well I include "Fun Facts!" :( Part I can be found here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8278459&mesg_id=8278459Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000
What the bill did - this bill repealed the Shad-Johnson jurisdictional accord, which had banned single-stock futures in 1982. The legislation also provided certainty that products offered by banking institutions would not be regulated as futures contracts.
The prohibition on single-stock futures and narrow-based indices that had been in effect until the passage of this act was known as the Shad-Johnson Accord because it was first announced in 1982, as part of a jurisdictional pact between John S.R. Shad, then chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Phil Johnson, then chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Who wrote the bill -The "Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000" (H.R. 5660) was introduced in the House on December 14, 2000 by Rep. Thomas W. Ewing (R-IL) and cosponsored by Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (R-VA) Rep. Larry Combest (R-TX) Rep. John J. LaFalce (D-NY) Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) and never debated in the House.
The companion bill (S.3283) was introduced in the Senate on December 15, 2000 (The last day before Christmas holiday) by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and cosponsored by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) Sen. Thomas Harkin (D-IA) Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) and never debated in the Senate.
The Rationale used to sell the bill to the American People None, as it was attached to the 2000 Budget Bill as Section 1(a)(7), in a long and complex conference report to the 11,000 page long "2000 omnibus budget bill" formally known as "The Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2001(Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill) (H.R. 4577)."
Who voted for the bill 133 Democrats and 157 Republicans voted for the appropriations bill. 51 Republicans and 9 Democrats opposed the appropriations bill vote results in the house. The Senate version passed by "Unanimous Consent."
Who signed the bill President Clinton signed it into Public Law (106-554) on December 21, 2000 as part of the omnibus budget Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000An Omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but contains amendments to a number of other laws or even many entirely new laws. An example of these are the Omnibus spending bills regularly used by the American Congress to group together the budgets of all departments in one year. Another famous example of an omnibus bill is the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, a massive 126-page, 120-clause amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada, which dealt with issues as diverse as homosexuality, abortion, gambling, gun control and drunk driving.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_billFUN FACTS: At the time, in the senate, there were 55 Republicans, and 45 Democrats.
In the house, there were 223 Republicans and 211 Democrats.
http://wapedia.mobi/en/United_States_Senate_elections,_1998By late 1999, when this bill was signed into law, the Republicans had held congress
since 1994.
Earlier that year, on February 12, 1999, The Senate had concluded a twenty-one day trial on the impeachment of Bill Clinton with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_ClintonAfter the 1994 election, a conservative Republican majority took control of Congress. The new makeup of Congress dramatically changed Clinton’s strategy. Unable to push his own programs, he turned his attention to preventing the Republicans’ conservative agenda from becoming law by vetoing Republican budgets that cut spending on programs he supported. In 1995 the Republican-controlled Congress twice shut down the federal government for short periods because it had not approved a budget.
Newt Gingrich left as speaker of the house in January of 1999, and Dennis Haster succeeded him.
The reason that Bill Clinton can take the credit for the economic boom that Americans enjoyed during his presidency had to do with what he did when he first took in office, in where he raised taxes and produced a budget that addressed the issue of deficits, which he was urged to do at the advise of his economic advisors.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564341_3/bill_clinton.htmlIt should be noted that Bill Clinton's economic team did not write the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.The act has been cited as a public-policy decision significantly contributing to Enron's bankruptcy in 2001 and the much broader liquidity crisis of September 2008 that led to the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers and emergency Federal Reserve Bank loans to American International Group<1> and to the creation of the U.S. Emergency Economic Stabilization fund.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000Part III to follow:
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
