Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Thanks for the Memories...

Jon Schwarz's lapidary little site, A Tiny Revolution, provided us with this fond moment:
Memory Lane

Here's the New York Times story about the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act:
Congress approved landmark legislation today that opens the door for a new era on Wall Street in which commercial banks, securities houses and insurers will find it easier and cheaper to enter one another's businesses...

"Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,'' Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said. ''This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.''

The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation's financial system.
Thank God this Summers guy no longer has any power over American economic policy.
Yeah, it makes a person feel all warm and confident inside, indeed it does, that the President has gathered around him so many experienced hands at managing the economy sensibly. I know you'll all join me in thanking President Obama for bringing back the best and the brightest to see us through this hour of crisis. With both Summers and Robert Rubin in there, what could go wrong?

BRING BACK ALAN GREENSPAN!!!

P.s.: In the "comments" at ATR, it is revealed that Sen. Byron Dorgan predicted, at the time, that in "ten years" we'd be regretting the rashness of the move to repeal G-S.

No comments: