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1. 

   neuturn said, 9 months ago

   Everybody should look at the repeal of Glass-Steagall as it sharply contrasts what is being touted as the bush era problems. Yes the wars were a big burden on our budget but this repeal is where things started.
2. 

   dtroutma said, 9 months ago

   Folks also should pay attention to how Phil Gramm inserted the repeal into “must pass” legislation.
3. 

   Dredpiraterobt$ said, 9 months ago

   Yeah, and people should notice that Robert Rubin went to Citigroup after his stint as treasury secretary (it was the Travellers/Citi corp merger that necessitated the repeal of Glass Steagall).
   .
   But that doesn’t absolve the banks and the regulators and the clown car of cronies that W put in charge ot those regulatory agencies over the intervening years!
   .
   These guys would be put in and then we’d find out that they were absolute phoneys and they’d have to resign, and then the next was worse than the last!
   .
   I say Clinton goes between 45 and 75 minutes tonight.
   .
   And I do hope the crowd goes wild. I do think the contrast between him and Christie will be STARK!
   .
   “How dare those Democrats try to get re-elected! How dare they get excited for their party and their candidate! You didn’t see us Republicans act that way!”
4. 

   Jeddidyah said, 9 months ago

   @neuturn

   Yes Clinton did do that. But the Glass-Steagall act would not have prevented most of what happened even if it was still in effect. What did the most damage was the fact that shrub’ didn’t enforce any banking laws and in fact went out of his way to gut SEC enforcement of banking laws.
   .
   http://www.propublica.org/article/the-gutting-of-the-sec-1015

   http://www.policyshop.net/home/2011/3/16/downsizing-the-sec-another-bad-idea.html
5. 

   zippy06 said, 9 months ago

   What about fair housing act of 1999?
   Everyone gets a home loan. Even if you can’t afford it.
6. 

   DrCanuck said, 9 months ago

   (Several new cartoons before this one)
7. 

   Michael wme said, 9 months ago

   @zippy06

   Basically, false. A suggestion that banks try to loan to credit-worthy red-lined borrowers, not a requirement (like the one depicted in Atlas Shrugged) that banks MUST lend to Friends of the Government who had no intention of ever paying any of the loan back.

   
   The loans turned out to be scams, with low initial ‘teaser’ payments in big, bold print, and the real payment given by an inscrutable formula (in fine print) that the unsophisticated borrower couldn’t possibly understand or repay.
8. 

   jamnarama said, 9 months ago

   @Michael wme

   And wouldn’t it have been morally and financially savvy to rewrite those loans rather than make millions homeless? Housing prices fell, in some places, by as much as 50% in some markets; meaning a payment the original homeowners could have afforded, before the highly inflated interest rates kicked in forcing them from their homes.
9. 

   Ms. Ima said, 9 months ago

   @jamnarama

   If people can’t afford to make their current payments how can they make ‘less’ payments on the same house? If they are behind on their mortgage they are behind on the 2 new cars in their driveway, their furniture payments, their 5 maxed out credit cards, their student loans, their utilities, taxes, insurance and on. Morally we got into this trouble by giving people houses they couldn’t afford because home prices were going up. Some people should rent because they can’t afford the moral and financial responsibility of owning a house.
10. 

    braindead08 said, 9 months ago

    Hmmm, I thought everything that happened in the Clinton era was because of the Republican congress. They’re NOT taking credit for the repeal of Glass-Steagall?
11. 

    d_legendary1 said, 9 months ago

    Nick also forgets that 90% of the Congress passed this law, meaning that if Bubba would have vetoed it the law would still pass (2/3rds majority vote to override a veto). Not to mention that Nude Gingrich was also investigating him till he saw things his way.
12. 

    ReasonsVentriloquist said, 9 months ago

    @Dredpiraterobt$

    “I say Clinton goes between 45 and 75 minutes tonight.”
    .
    48 minutes. I win!
13. 

    MortyForTyrant said, 9 months ago

    Shorttime gain, longtime loss. Nuff said.
14. 

    sSTttrugglePup said, 9 months ago

    See its all about the timing – just like Clinton said, " …a broken clock is right twice a day…" It’s so sad (or is it in reality a blessing ?) that democratic/representative government has come to this.
15. 

    american illuminati said, 9 months ago

    people think that the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act by Bill Clinton and the Republican congress was the underlining cause of the subprime mortgage crisis.

    The financial deregulation of the banks was insufficient in itself to cause this problem. Many of the big banks already had
    investment and trading desks and there was defacto deregulation by 1999.

    In the UK, the Thatcher regime had created the “Big Bang” financial deregulation that totally revived the mordant financial
    sector. This example was one of the big reasons to deregulate the US banks.

    The non-regulation of credit default swaps and the mislabeling of credit risk was the primary cause of the subprime crisis.
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