25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis (starting with #1. Phil Gramm)

[DemoTex]

"As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee from 1995 through 2000, Gramm was Washington's outspoken champion of deregulation. And he got it, by playing a lead role in the writing and passage of the 1999 repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which had separated commercial banks from Wall Street. Then he inserted a provision into the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act that exempted derivatives like credit-default swaps from regulation."

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1877351,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877330,00.html





On the list to blame, as always:

[boobooday]

1. There seems to be agreement on the source of the stench

MFers.

[rurallib]

2. Greenspan is only 17th? And no Ray-gun?

St. Ronnie is the grandfather of this mess.

[iamjoy]

3. That's What I Thought

Reagan should be on the list and Greenspan should be higher.

I'm not sure Madoff deserves so much blame, if any. He's far from innocent - a real ass in fact. He bilked a bunch of rich people for billions, but really, he's more a emblem or symbol of the crisis than a real cause. He's the crook of the month. I mean, if you want to include people who cheated investors out of billions, why not add Ken Lay, too? Is it because his schemes came to light in stronger economic times and we were able to recover whereas in Madoff's case the ca-ca hit the fan in the middle of a meltdown? Or is it because we don't want to speak ill of the dead (which would explain why Reagan isn't on the list).

[izquierdista]

4. Reagan was a scarecrow

His head all full of stuffing. Only thing he could do was memorize and read his lines (until his memory failed). You can't blame him anymore than you can blame Ted Baxter for causing the news, just for reading it badly.

[UTUSN]

5. K&R big #5!1 n/t

[wroberts189]

6. Looks like Phil Gramm liked the everything goes Casino model of capitalism.

He is why I gave up watching tv ...I would have smashed it if I had to hear one more word from him.


Whats that cartoon turtle character's name again?

[underpants]

7. Dick Fuld

Nice name

[no name no slogan]

8. I worked in the financial industry in the 1990s, during the fight to repeal Glass-Steagal

And the financial industry was chomping at the bit to get their paws on that banking business. As employees, we were lobbied on a weekly basis to contact our congresscritters to get the legislation passed. I remember thinking at the time that it was a terrible idea, but everybody (even pro-business Democrats) were gung-ho to deregulate the industry.

And look what we got.

[hologram]

9. They forgot Ronald Reagan.

He belongs at or near the top of the list IMO as more or less the founder of the modern Demonize the Government and Deregulate/Unbridled Greed is Good movement.