Shattering Glass-Steagall

« Return to Article

Discuss

Member Comments

  • Posted By: sieg6529 @ 09/16/2008 8:47:44 AM

    Look at what so many years of Republican leadership has wrought. 5 years ago, I would have said that McCain would have been a great choice. Even a year ago, I was saying that anyone would be better than Bush & Darth Cheney. However, now I can't stomach the thought of another 4 years of horribly failed policies enacted in worship of the almighty dollar. No way, no how, no McCain, no Palin!

  • Posted By: maq1 @ 09/15/2008 11:56:13 PM

    McCain sold out his independent fans like myself and has become a Republican patsy. I remember when I read his book "Why Courage Matters." I thought it was remarkable that I was reading a book by a Washington politician that i actually enjoyed. It sat next to "Profiles in Courage" on my bookshelf. Where'd that McCain go? I dont know and frankly I don't care. He lost his spine. Time to kick him out with the rest of the Republican cronies.

    -- Fiscal Conservative and Former Republican

  • Posted By: vstillwell @ 09/15/2008 10:54:35 PM

    Buckle up everyone. We're getting ready to go for ride. Gotta love 7 and 8 percent unemployment. Can I get a round of applause for G Dub, Phil Gramm, Dick Cheney and all the other regulation haters out there for making this possible. All of you who voted for G Dub give yourselves a pat on the back. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to see all the fiascos taking place every single day. Keep spinning those hits. Hell, vote for McPalin. Let's keep the ball rolling. FRED THOMPSON 2012 BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! WHEW HOOO!

  • Posted By: gcv1964 @ 09/15/2008 9:22:35 PM

    How many more bubbles are we going to have to blow before we face up to the hard reality that an economy based primarily on services does not produce net wealth. We keep going through crises like this borne out of greed, creative financing and over valuation. Fundamentally we aren't generating enough real wealth in our economy to fund our lifestyle. This is a painful lesson we seem not to be learning right now. We must fix the fundamentals that are creating these problems instead of trying to lessen the impact at the dining room table while fixing nothing - which is what our politicians are inclined to do.

    Maybe we are looking at a real solution that will take a decade to play out. We will be more humbled. We will learn the true value of the dollar - buying what we can afford instead of what we can finance. We will learn to inspire our kids to learn useful skills that will last them a lifetime. We will focus on ensuring that we ourselves have the skills necessary to compete on the world stage. And when we have learned these great lessons, we will again be a great nation - ready to lead the world as we rethink our transportation infrastructure, as we explore our nearest heavenly bodies and beyond, as we protect and promote democracy for all . Essentially, we are ready to learn the lessons our grandparents and great grandparents learned during the depression. Those great lessons gave us 50 years of prosperity - we need to go through it again to get another 50 great years.

  • Posted By: AspenFreePress @ 09/15/2008 7:57:59 PM

    The U.S. will crank up its presses and print enough dollars to bail everyone out of this mess. Do you know how much time it takes to print $75 billion? A lot less time than the newspaper press run of a metrol daily.
    Sterling Greenwood
    Aspen Free Press

  • Posted By: Life-is-Good @ 09/15/2008 7:50:52 PM

    Hey Mr. Masters Degree and 100k salary, didn't the article say the act was repealed by President Clinton. I'm positive he was a Democrat.

    High tech HS dropout with 100k salary, St. Louis, Missouri

  • Posted By: RO in Reno @ 09/15/2008 5:40:41 PM

    Iota1963, I read another post by you and see we could agree 95% of the time but the comment "With all the prosperity the Republicans have brought to our nation," is over the top.

    Hoover gave us the great depression
    Nixon gave us heartburn
    Regan gave us Black Monday
    GHW Bush gave us the Savings and loan crisis, and bailed out his own kid Neil at a cost of $68billion to the taxpayers (Silverado S&L)
    GW Bush has given us (so far) Enron, Indy Mac, and the housing crisis, with banks failing every week there is more to come.

    The Republicans have given great wealth to the few, but for millions and millions of Americans the "American Dream" is unattainable at this point and may never be recovered with the lose of manufacturing jobs.

    The Republican reply to these people is always the same, get a degree and become part of the "Service industry" what ever that means.
    These millions of people lack the intellectual capacity or the economic capacity or both to do that.

    I survived the Nixon years, the Reagan years and the Bush years lost my butt in the stock market losing saving and retirement funds the same as everyone else, and had my first 100k year in 1977, in todays America I don't think it could be done as I did it.

    The economic crisis we now see was predictable the day Bush won the election.
    People keep asking the question "are you better off now than you were 4 years ago" the fact is the greater majority of Americans are not better off than they were 40 years ago.

    The reason people keep voting the Republicans into office is they buy into the rhetoric.
    I've seen kids making minimum wage, telling me the economic problems are the union???s fault, when organized labor would be their only chance of improving their lives.

    Or some guy making $40,000 a year supporting Bush because of tax cuts, not realizing his tax cut was ZERO.
    I don't know if you consider these people just dumb or if insane could be used to describe them.
    But the fact is the Republican Party has brought prosperity only to the few, time and time again, and some of these voters you mention will vote Republican because Palin is attractive, or that McCain will make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

    You say you understand why people vote for the Republicans, Well I sure as hell don't.

    • Posted By: Sonny Crockett @ 09/15/2008 5:47:21 PM

      Let me take this one, its easy -- in your rush to blame republicans for death and taxes, and probably for being mean to you in school, you weren't smart enough to get that iota1963 was being sarcastic. Yep. Good one. I love your misplaced passion though, you go girl!

      • Posted By: RO in Reno @ 09/15/2008 7:42:58 PM

        Well lets see both Bush and McCain want to privatize Social Security, The reason Social Security is in trouble is because Reagan deregulated the protections in place at the time and could take the money with just an IOU. Currently it's estimated the Government owes the SS fund 3.8 trillion,
        As I recall when Reagan did this his exact words were "Let the good Times roll" They did for the few that is Reagan nearly bankrupted the country and when he left office we had the highest unemployment (nearly10%) in the last forty years, "let the good times roll my a$$"

        When Wall Street took millions of peoples saving and retirement Reagan call it "profit taking" the rest of us call it "Black Monday"

        The current housing crisis is the direct result of Phil Gramm R TX, deregulation of the banking industry.
        Everyone thinks the Republican effort to deregulate the financial markets sounds like a good idea, what they dont realize is the deregulation is to remove the protections for millions of people and make access to saving and retirement easier.
        The only safeguard left is the FDIC insurance, otherwise what we call a crisis would be called a depression.
        And if Trickle down economics is so great why do we have a crisis at all and unemployment rising to meet Reagan's record.

  • Posted By: Tea6 @ 09/15/2008 7:27:59 PM

    These investment banks who pushed the free market on everyone else, who delight in the joys of creative destruction are now crying for bailouts and backstops. No more free markets, it hurts too much! Well, sorry suckers. Now you will find out what it is like to be a highly skilled worker who cannot get a job. Welcome to the wonderful global world you created.

  • Posted By: Perusing-through @ 09/15/2008 6:11:26 PM

    .
    McCAIN IS A FRAUD

    PALIN IS A LIAR

    NEITHER CAN SPELL CHANGE EVEN IF YOU SPOTTED THEM THE 'C' AND THE 'H', AND HANDED THEM THE VOWELS 'A' AND 'E'.

    McCAIN IS JUST SWIPING OBAMA???S "CHANGE" CAMPAIGN - - - WORD FOR WORD!!

    McCAIN KISSED BUSH's @$$ WITH 90% OF HIS VOTES AND NOW WE HAVE , , , , , , , , , ,

    (1.) - Lehman Brothers and other Financial Institutions dropping dead after McCain and Bush applied a hands-off policy, instead of applying gentle regulations to insure the integrity of financial organizations.

    (2.) - The housing foreclosure response from Bush and McCain is a YEAR LATE and VERY WEAK. If Bush and McCain would have acted decisively a year ago, the housing foreclosure disaster would not have spread to Wall Street.

    (3.) - Unemployment at its highest rate; far higher than when Bush took office and jobs continue to fly overseas.

    (4.) - National debt continues to break records and "spiral out of control", even after Bush and McCain took over from Clinton when the nation had a "surplus".

    (5.) - A gallon of gasoline was $1.50 when Bush/McCain took over 8-years ago. Now its $4.00 a gallon, the fastest 8-year climb in history.

  • Posted By: Syscrusher @ 09/15/2008 5:48:15 PM

    Iota1963: Read the article. It says that President Clinton, a Democrat, signed the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. It came out of a Republican Congress, but it was not vetoed by, admittedly, a moderate Democrat president. He basically signed off on eliminating the firewall created by FDR during the Depression. Also, your reference to the Supreme Court is irrellevent. $100,000 and a Masters Degree?

  • Posted By: Omnius @ 09/15/2008 5:23:28 PM

    The republicans have brought on another banking meltdown as they deregulated banking with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that Clinton should never have signed. Now the very same Gramm is McCain's top economic advisor and all he ever advises is to cut regulation. McCain/Palin will not reform banking and will not push for accountability or transparency, they only say this to get votes but once in office it will be Herbert Hoover/George Bush business as usual.

    • Posted By: Sonny Crockett @ 09/15/2008 5:31:14 PM

      Ok, so why did Clinton sign the legislation? Saying he "should never have signed" is your way of playing the "it's the republican's fault!!" game. Sorry, but no one is going for it. The McCain = Bush theme is a proven loser, look at the polls, you need to come up with something better than that. And I repeat, the I-Bank meltdowns are due to the greed of men (and women), simple as that. Political party of choice is irrelevant.

  • Posted By: Iota1963 @ 09/15/2008 3:51:33 PM

    Considering Republican Presidents have appointed 7 of the current 9 Supreme Court Justices, 5 of the last 7 Presidents have been Republicans, and until 2 years ago, controlled both houses of congress, I understand why so many voters feel the Republican Party represents their interests. With all the prosperity the Republicans have brought to our nation, I don't blame them for sticking with what they see as the party that represents their values. (I admit to being an east coast liberal "elitist" with a Masters Degree and 100K salary). the shame of it is, regardless of the mortage crisis, credit crunch, bank failures, record bankruptcies, .....people will still vote for the Republican policies.

    • Posted By: Sonny Crockett @ 09/15/2008 5:27:22 PM

      What a fool you are, and your arguments fold back on themselves. Those same presidents presided over the longest bull market ever seen. And last I checked, the supreme court didn't have anything to do with the overleveraging by Merrill, Lehman or Bear. You are definitely an elitist who thinks he knows what is best for everyone else, and your use of sarcasm as a way of stating your case is a classic way of turning readers off.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse