What else is going on today?
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(Note also that the "Gramm" of Gramm-Leach-Bliley is the same Phil Gramm who put together the McCain campaign's economic policies -- and still advises the campaign.)
GLBA was put into law to legalize the Travelers Group takeover of Citibank in 1998 (and change the combined company's name to Citigroup). When the takeover was announced, it was illegal, but lobbyists used that announcement (and millions of dollars in campaign contributions) to get the law changed. Basically, GLBA destroyed the firewall between banks, which were well insured by the federal government and heavily regulated to make sure that their business practices were sound, and other financial services companies, which were uninsured and only regulated to a tiny extent.
The purveyors of this bill promised that there would be internal separations created within mega-companies. For instance, "bankers" would be required to have their own business cards (I'm not kidding!).
The end result is that banks were able to move into riskier operations, and insurance and investment companies could buy banks and leverage the banks' deposits to borrow against other investments. Eventually, this house of cards was bound to crumble, and we're seeing the result.
...does that mean we can't refer to Roy McDonald as Roy McBruno? It seems to be all the rage in the Presidential campaign...
I'm sorry...it felt good to say just once. I'll refrain in the future :-)
Educated people are trained to look deeper than that-- and it is important to do so. This video, although well-done, based on factual info, and moving, is not at all adequate to "find out why these banks and corporations are failing and where the money is going." Macroeconomics is involved in doing that-- and, honestly, macroeconomics is fairly complex, beyond reduction. Can't sum it up in any few-minutes video or even a few posts.
Now, not everybody wants to be an economic policy wonk and learn the details, and that is ok-- but, please, don't pretend it is simple and there are a few top overpaid bad guys who are solely responsible. The global economic/financial system is in crisis, and sweeping changes will take place.... changes that may take months if not years for trained economists to fully understand and process. None of which should prevent us from capping CEO pay or instituting progressive taxation, both of which have been good, needed reforms all along.
But, the US system of global capitalism is undergoing restructuring. Its not a headache, it won't go away any time soon, and, McCain's absurdity of the "fundamentals being strong" could not be further from the truth. Work to elect Obama, read the economics blogs if you have the stomach for it, and, everybody, be ready to help a neighbor who may fall on hard times. The video at least has that right-- lots of good hardworking people who have done nothing wrong are getting slammed against the wall in this.
http://www.streetsblog.org/200...
This is the first paragraph from Streetsblog:
A couple of days ago we relayed the remarkable story of Colin Beavan's close call with a careless motorist, which ended with the parties shaking hands. Yesterday, No Impact Man encountered another inattentive driver -- one State Senator Jeff Klein -- but this time there were no heartwarming epiphanies.
If this happened once before only a couple of days ago with the same guy riding his bike, doesn't anyone think it could be the guy riding the bike?
We have a saying in my family. The first time you get bit, it's the dog's fault. The second time, it's yours.
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