Study: Housing Collapse Steeper than during the Great Depression.

there is a reason its called the Gramm–Leach–Bliley bill. dems were involved and it was a mistake for clinton to sign it but it was a republican creation.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R, Texas), Rep. Jim Leach (R, Iowa), and Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (R, Virginia), the co-sponsors of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.

 

"In 1999, former Senator Phil Gramm (who is, incidentally, Senator John McCain's economic adviser and cochairs his presidential campaign) set out to completely gut the Glass-Steagall Act, and did so successfully, replacing most of its components with the new Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act: allowing commercial banks, investment banks, and insurers to merge (which would have violated antitrust laws under Glass-Steagall). Sen. Gramm was the driving force behind the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, as he had received over $4.6 million from the FIRE sector (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate donations) over the previous decade, and once the Act passed, an influx of "megamergers" took place among banks and insurance and securities companies, as if they had been eagerly awaiting the passage of Gramm's Act. Everything in between Glass-Steagall and Gramm-Leach-Bliley (i.e. Savings and Loan crisis/bust) was, in large part, the incubation period for what would take place over the nine years that would follow the passage of Gramm's Act: an experiment in deregulation.

Shortly after George W. Bush was elected president, Congress and President Clinton were trying to pass a $384 billion omnibus spending bill, and while the debates swirled around the passage of this bill, Senator Phil Gramm clandestinely slipped a 262-page amendment into the omnibus appropriations bill titled: Commodity Futures Modernization Act. It is likely that few senators read this bill, if any. The essence of the act was the deregulation of derivatives trading (financial instruments whose value changes in response to the changes in underlying variables; the main use of derivatives is to reduce risk for one party). The legislation contained a provision -- lobbied for by Enron, a major campaign contributor to Gramm -- that exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight. Basically, it gave way to the Enron debacle and ushered in the new era of unregulated securities. Interestingly enough, Gramm's wife, Wendy, had been part of the Enron board, and her salary and stock income brought in between $900,000 and $1.8 million to the Gramm household, prior to the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act."


http://losangeles.injuryboard.com/m...phil-gramm-an-experiment-in-deregulation.aspx

 

The "Subprime 25":

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/the_subprime_25/

Edit: full list:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/the_subprime_25/full_list/

 

So that is your excuse? Democrats are innocent because supposedly none of them, including clinton read the bill before they overwhelmingly voted for it and signed it into law?

Well gee, i never saw this before, that settles it, the democrats are completely innocent.

Atleast im willing to admit the fact that the republicans are equally to blame as well, you guys try to make it out as though the democrats who voted all this stuff in, and did not want to regulate fannie or freddie are somehow completely innocent.

 

Interesting lists, thx for the link, though Fannie and Freddie should be on that list given the fact that we as tax payers now owe hundreds of billions of dollars for all the failed loans they produced, they should be in the top 5 on this list.

 

That's really the point. This mess, like virtually all our country's problems were created by Dems and Repubs together.

"The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90–8 (one not voting) and in the House: 362–57 (15 not voting). The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Act

The fact that Republicans controlled the congress was irrelevant since the final bill passed with majority support from both parties and was then signed by a Democratic President. Repealing Glass-Steagall was a bi-partisan act of insanity.

 

I agree, and i find it funny that dems all over the place try to absolve themselves of their side of the blame with the excuse that the republicans supposedly rammed it through without any of the dems reading it, bu voting overwhelmingly in favour of it before signing it into law.....

Perhaps when we see what a disaster Obamacare is they will use the same excuse, and say they are innocent because none of them read the bill before they overwhelmingly voted for it and signed it into law.....

 

What he said.

 

I believe they would have made the list, had they been a big enough part of the problem.

 

We are on the hook for a couple hundred billion dollars due to them, the top mortgage company (country wide) was only responsible for 98 billion in subprime loans, how could anyone say they were not a huge part of the problem?