How Deregulation Eviscerated the Banking Sector Safety Net and Spawned the U.S. Financial Crisis

I'm just going to post a list of the various 'Acts' that have been enacted since 1980 and a snippet-or-two from a couple.
The story is well written, but I'm not totally in the know on a lot of these bills and I'm not a finance expert

1. Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (On thing the act did was pre-empted state usury laws that limited the rates lenders could charge on residential mortgage loans.)

2. Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act (1982. paved the way for the future collapse of the savings and loan industry)

3. 1987, Alan Greenspan replaced Paul A. Volcker...active proponent of Glass-Steagall (Volcker is the proponent, not greenspan)

4. Basel Accord (1988. marketable securities that could theoretically be sold easily would not require significant reserves.)

5. At the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission Wendy Gramm, wife of U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Tex., as chairperson, would result in the 1989 and 1993 exemption of swaps and derivatives from all regulation.

6. Sarbanes-Oxley

7. in 1998, when Citibank was bought by Travelers. The deal married Citibank, a commercial bank, with Travelers’ Solomon, Smith Barney investment bank and the Travelers insurance business.

8. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, at once doing away with Glass-Steagall and the 1956 BHC Act

9. On April 28, 2004, the SEC ruled that investment banks may essentially determine their own net capital.

link:
http://www.moneymorning.com/2009/01/13/deregulation-financial-crisis/

Paulson gets confirmed in about an easy hour by unanimous voice vote. "Simply no equal to Hank!!" (Chuck Schumer)

And all the rest, as they say, is history.

Thanks!

I know there are many Republicans who will say, "yeah, but who was President in the late 90's?" Well, the Republicans had Clinton preoccupied with a bogus impeachment. They had the media in their back pockets. The Republicans hd the Congressional majority. There wasn't a chance that Democrats could derail the Republican agenda to deregulate every financial institution in the country. Then Bush got selected.