atxlrj t1_jcnmbj0 wrote on March 18, 2023 at 3:32 AM

Reply to comment by jmccormack74 in [OC] Bank failures come in waves by pranshum

Yes and no.

The waves correspond IMO to the weakening of Glass-Staegall for sure.

But Republican Presidents aren’t necessarily the chief culprits. DIDMCA was signed by Carter and Glass-Steagall was repealed by Clinton. Reagan and Bush did more than their fair share, but banking deregulation was definitely a bipartisan affair.

Fish_Slapping_Dance t1_jcqnh41 wrote on March 18, 2023 at 8:28 PM

>"Glass-Steagall was repealed by Clinton"

Clinton signed the law, but he didn't create the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 that repealed Glass-Steagall. That was three republicans who created the bill and got it passed in a republican controlled Congress in both houses. Banks had wanted to deregulate their activities since at least the 1980s. Republicans gave banks the deregulation that they so desperately wanted. It was a disaster.

Yes, there was bipartisan support, but the ratio was more like 2 republicans to one democrat voting in favor in the House, and nearly 90% of democrats in the Senate voting against.

Had democrats controlled the Senate, it would likely have failed, and we would not have had the huge mergers that happened or the resulting "too big to fail" problem where the failure of those financial institutions brought down the entire economy.

>"During debate in the House of Representatives, Rep. John Dingell (Democrat of Michigan) argued that the bill would result in banks becoming "too big to fail." Dingell further argued that this would necessarily result in a bailout by the Federal Government."

atxlrj t1_jcqx7qv wrote on March 18, 2023 at 9:39 PM

Right and the commenter I was responding to was focused on the role of Presidents, not Congress.

I was disagreeing that “Republican Presidents” were primarily to blame for banking deregulation when Carter and Clinton had both signed deregulation bills, including the repeal of Glass-Steagall. Clinton has signaled his support for repeal from as early as 1995. Clinton has since defended this decision and insisted it didn’t contribute to the Great Recession.

So I stand by the conclusion that that Democratic Presidents don’t have a better record than GOP presidents when it comes to major banking deregulation. However, I also disagree with your congressional analysis - the bill was already stalled before joint negotiations. The final version passed 90-8 in the Senate - I don’t support the idea that a Democratic Senate would have killed the bill beyond all negotiation given that President Clinton had been in support of repeal.

Fish_Slapping_Dance t1_jcr1gdo wrote on March 18, 2023 at 10:11 PM

>"and the commenter I was responding to was focused on the role of Presidents, not Congress."

Yes, and you both focus on people who did not create the legislation that shipwrecked the economy. That was conservatives in Congress and the banking industry. Carter and Clinton had no hand in drafting legislation. Clinton was culpable also, having not vetoed it, but it may have been overridden. Not likely, but possible. He made a bad decision, working with the GOP. It ruined us.

You don't support my well reasoned conclusion that the GOP were responsible for the repeal of Glass-Steagall, but you're not correct in that, and the vote shows the truth of it. Had Democrat controlled the Senate, the repeal effort would certainly have been defeated, and therefore there would be no bill for Clinton to sign or not sign. A president cannot veto a bill that does not exist. This is why voting for Democrats matters, because the banking collapse of 2008 was disastrous, and it could have been prevented.