The last vestiges of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933,
which was passed during the first year of the Franklin Roosevelt
administration in an attempt to regulate the banking industry in the
face of the Great Depression, were repeled in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton.
With a stroke of the pen, Bill Clinton, who campaigned on the idea
that “the era of big Government is over,” completed a process begun in
1980, in the Reagan administration. Reagan, who campaigned on the idea
that he would “get government off our backs,” began the process of
deregulation. In 1980, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act
was passed. It removed the power of the Federal Reserve Board to set
interest rates for savings accounts originally established by
Glass-Steagall.
The process of deregulation that began with Reagan and was completed by Clinton has brought us to the crisis we face today.
To read the rest of this post, including the suggestion that Smart Government replace Big Government, see WPSU.org.
Hi Chris. You post got me thinking about a previous post by Robert Reich some time ago. Have you read this post?
Also if Obama is elected, do you it possible that Obama would give Reich an important role in his presidency?
Nikki:
I hope he does because I really like Robert Reich. I have no idea what Reich’s relationship to Obama is, but Obama would do well to have him involved in some way.