It is true that he signed the omnibus spending bill (a must-sign bill!) that had that provision slipped into it, with hardly any debate, at the eleventh hour, in Nov 1999, by that bastard republican Phil Gramm and his republican buddy in the House, Leach. Deregulation of banking was championed by republicans --not democrats. Clinton signed it into law but he wasn't the culprit.
I am not a particular fan of Bill Clinton, but let's give him his due. He did support the base closing commission and saved the US tax payer billions. That was a large and significant shrinking on the fiscal side that he did promote.
This is a drastic distortion of the facts. The housing policies under Carter were benign. The problems had their genesis in the invention of CDOs by Salomon Bros and First Boston in the 1980's. This resulted in roughly ten times more mortgage money being available to loan. Then came Phil Gramm who was responsible for Repeal of Glas-Steagall which ultimately lead to a great proliferation in the number of banks and branch offices all competing for borrowers. Alan Greenspan, the chief mortgage regulator, who did not believe in regulation, was warmed repeatedly of the problems in the mortgage market but brushed them off as self-correcting! But Greenspan believed wholeheartedly in turning on the money spigot full blast. He apparently also believed that a goosed economy was a happy economy, especially when he took rates to historic lows to help his pal George W. Bush get relected, even though the recession was already ending and the market was moving up. Still another contributor to the nightmare was Cox at the SEC who also did not believe in regulation and cheerily agreed to an expansion of leverage to 30:1 at the investment bank's request. All of these folks were Republican appointees -- Greenspan, an avowed republican, having been appointed by Nixon initially. If you want to fault Clinton, there are plenty of things to gripe about. I would say that in hindsight his biggest mistake was to retain Greenspan as Fed Chairman instead of replacing him with a more responsible bank regulator.
Like it was real tough for a demo to support that. The fact is he just went along with something that initiated under Bush Sr. due to the post cold war drawdown, and it was this and this alone which was Al Gore's 'shrinking of gov't'. He deserves very little credit for this.
shouldn't we give credit where credit is due- ie the massive expansion of the internet in the 90's for all of the success. clinton was busy smoking snatch flavored dubies.
I don't remember about capital gains tax. I do recall his RAISING federal income tax... But of course, that's what I stated before.. RAISED INCOME TAX.
I think greespan had two tough problems. One was the effect of the internet (dot.coms) on employement and inflation and secondly was 911, there wasn't much he could do to get the economy rolling except lower the interest rates to get people out and spending. If employment was good and inflation contained, what's a poor boy to do?
What a fallacy to think Bill Clinton built a great economy. We had a high tech boom, and we had cheap energy. Very, very few people realize how important cheap and/or affordable energy is to economic expansion. Oil at 80 bucks a barrel is not cheap, neither is the price of electricity. In Clinton's time, China and India were not consuming energy the way they are now. A strong economic recovery worldwide would drive the price of energy up beyond the previous levels, and that would kill any recovery. The current leadership we have today doesn't have a big picture perspective...neither do the talking heads on the right and left. You build a great car but no roads? You build electric cars but the cost of electricity makes them less affordable than gas or natural gas? The real problem is that we need to build a base of cheap and affordable energy in this country. Now is the time to do it. We have lots of people out of work who could work to build the necessary infrastructure to ensure that when we do have a legitimate recovery...there will be delivery systems and plenty of fuel to run the economy. The consumerism that drove our economy in Clinton's time worked because of a wealth effect, and the fact that wages and cost of living allowed people to buy shit. Any hint of strong recovery, and oil will easily double. With the tax that comes from higher energy, and higher health care...the people are not in a position to do much beyond survival, so that will kill any possible recovery. So Clinton could do only one thing (which Obama could also do) and make energy independence...affordable and plentiful energy...our number 1 priority. With affordable health care number 2. You create a situation where people can afford to live and work and have some money left over to buy shit they don't need...that's the ticket.
Oh, I don't know... perhaps NOT promote "loose money and pedal-to-the-metal borrow and spend"... ?? GreenScam is a STAIN on American history... Instead of being knighted by the Queen, he should have been INDICTED!!