Bill Schools Barack * Open Thread
By SusanUnPC on October 1, 2008 at 11:30 AM in Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Open Thread
When I need a good laugh, the Wall Street Journal‘s op-ed page is not the first place I think of going. But I roared when I read this today:
Bill v. Barack on Banks Clinton instructs Obama on
finance and Phil Gramm.
A running cliché of the political left and the press corps these days is that our current financial problems all flow from Congress’s 1999 decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that separated commercial and investment banking. Barack Obama has been selling this line every day. Bill Clinton signed that “deregulation” bill into law, and he knows better.
In BusinessWeek.com, Maria Bartiromo reports that she asked the former President last week whether he regretted signing that legislation. Mr. Clinton’s reply: “No, because it wasn’t a complete deregulation at all. We still have heavy regulations and insurance on bank deposits, requirements on banks for capital and for disclosure. I thought at the time that it might lead to more stable investments and a reduced pressure on Wall Street to produce quarterly profits that were always bigger than the previous quarter.
“But I have really thought about this a lot. I don’t see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn’t signed that bill.”
One of the writers of that legislation was then-Senator Phil Gramm, who is now advising John McCain, and who Mr. Obama described last week as “the architect in the United States Senate of the deregulatory steps that helped cause this mess.” Ms. Bartiromo asked Mr. Clinton if he felt Mr. Gramm had sold him “a bill of goods”?
Mr. Clinton: “Not on this bill I don’t think he did. You know, Phil Gramm and I disagreed on a lot of things, but he can’t possibly be wrong about everything. On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I’d be glad to look at the evidence.
“But I can’t blame [the Republicans]. This wasn’t something they forced me into. I really believed that given the level of oversight of banks and their ability to have more patient capital, if you made it possible for [commercial banks] to go into the investment banking business as Continental European investment banks could always do, that it might give us a more stable source of long-term investment.”
We agree that Mr. Clinton isn’t wrong about everything. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed the Senate on a 90-8 vote, including 38 Democrats and such notable Obama supporters as Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dick Durbin, Tom Daschle — oh, and Joe Biden. Mr. Schumer was especially fulsome in his endorsement.
As for the sins of “deregulation” more broadly, this is a political fairy tale. …
I wish I could post the entire op-ed. Read it here: Bill v. Barack on Banks || Clinton instructs Obama on finance and Phil Gramm.
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This is an OPEN THREAD.
P.S. Barack Obama’s speech was on TV while I wrote this up. He said, and I quote, “We’re going to work together to banish fear.” Okay. Gotcha. I’m on board with that. Oh man.
A concern: McCain’s speech came first. He expressed smart ideas, but it was a snore to listen to him. Obama, in contrast, was on fire and had the crowd revved. McCain’s audience, in contrast, only politely applauded. It’s too bad. Oratory is no reason to vote for someone. Ever. But I’m afraid it’s going to have undue influence in this election.
(I’ll look for the text of both speeches and post the links.)
by Ronald Scott
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