The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. That’s your second Great Depression bitch, right there. If you want to point a finger at what caused this massive recession (come on…it’s a depression) and massive 16% actual unemployment, you need look no further than Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Those are the three idiots at the top of this article. Their bill rendered the second part of the Glass Steagall act impotent.

I was gently scolded the other day by democrats for being against a Financial Services reform bill that doesn’t go nearly far enough. In fact, I support Senator Russ Feingold’s decision to vote against that bad bill. One of the items missing from the bill is Glass Steagall safeguards. According to Feingold:

Deregulation in 1979 due to rising interest rates and the incessant whining of Savings & Loans lobbyists greatly contributed to the S&L scandal that cost US taxpayer $125 Biilion in losses and rocked the financial world for almost a decade. The S&L scandal was a direct contributor to the 1990-1991 recession.

The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 (Graham-Leach-Bliley) did away with restrictions on the integration of banking, insurance and stock trading imposed by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. Under the old law, banks, brokerages and insurance companies were effectively barred from entering each others’ industries, and investment banking and commercial banking were separated. This one act of deregulation stands at the center of a host of other things our government did that caused the Great Depression of 2008-2009, and on and on and on. Let’s ignore this new Great Depression for this post.

Beat the Kleptocracy one time! Glass-Steagall or Bust!

The SEC accuses Goldman Sachs of fraud in a civil suit. An audit of Lehman Brothers reveals it used a shady accounting practice to conceal $50 billion in debts. An investigation of Wa-Mu shows it was rife with fraud, including fabricated loan documents. Clearly, these bankers can’t stop themselves from engaging in deceit to make money. And the “free market” has failed to moderate their reckless gambling. Strict regulation is crucial to prevent them from crashing the world economy again.

what to expect from ‘financial reform’

Paul Abram’s thoughts on the “end the filibuster” movement.

By Zach Carter, Media Consortium Blogger

Progressives have waited a year for President Barack Obama to roll up his sleeves and fight for serious financial reform. Last week, he finally jumped in the ring, telling weak-kneed Senators to stand up to Wall Street and endorsing a critical ban on risky securities trading.

These images speak for themselves. By overlaying when one of FDR’s signature laws was repealed by Citigroup lobbying and Clinton on top growth in banks, lobbying, etc., you can see how big banks have been allowed to get. Lobbying in the years leading up to 1999 for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 (the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed G-S), which sought to protect people’s commercial deposits from being fodder for risky investments, was successful at helping to create new kinds of mergers and new kinds of bigness in the markets.

As the Congress limps toward the finish line on health-care reform, it would be wise of Democrats to consider the last three significant pieces of legislation signed into law by a Democratic president and their effects. The current Senate version of HCR is significantly flawed and unless the bill is improved Democrats will face enormous electoral challenges in the near future.