Overheard on CNN
Somebody in congress, obviously a Republican, saying, "Why haven't the Democrats averted this impending disaster? They have been in charge for the last 14 months?"
Well, why didn't the Republicans realize it too if they have been in charge?
Shut up and work it out!
Well, why didn't the Republicans realize it too if they have been in charge?
Shut up and work it out!
posted by nicky at 10/10/2008 08:36:00 AM
1 Comments:
I hate to be a harbinger of facts, but the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall act was signed by Bill Clinton.
The Glass-Steagall act was enacted during the depression and intended to prevent the types of stupidity displayed by several financial institutions lately. For example "The repeal [of Glass-Steagall] enabled commercial lenders such as Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank by assets, to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities." (from Wikipedia)
The repeal of Glass-Steagle allowed and is in part responsible for the current clusterfuck.
However, Bush and the head of the SEC, Christopher Cox are not blameless - both refused to enforce existing regulations and Cox allowed the investment banks to leverage more than 12:1 (the previous limit) after 2004. This made for spectacular profits during boom times, but when things go bad, as they always do, high leverage will fuck you in the ass hard. Just ask Lehman Bros. The problem with leverage is you can end up losing more than you invested.
The idiot CEOs of the failed and failing companies also share in the blame.
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