Commodity Marketing

[jensend]

clinton signed the bill but phil gramm (mccain's lead advisor on the economy) helped draft and sponsor it. neither of the two parties has clean hands on this one. glass steagall was passed as a response to the same debacle occurring in the twenties.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, Pub. L. No. 106-102, 113 Stat. 1338 (November 12, 1999), is an Act of the United States Congress which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, opening up competition among banks, securities companies and insurance companies. The Glass-Steagall Act prohibited a bank from offering investment, commercial banking, and insurance services.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) allowed commercial and investment banks to consolidate. For example, Citibank merged with Travelers Group, an insurance company, and in 1998 formed the conglomerate Citigroup, a corporation combining banking and insurance underwriting services. Other major mergers in the financial sector had already taken place such as the Smith-Barney, Shearson, Primerica and Travelers Insurance Corporation combination in the mid-1990s. This combination, announced in 1993 and finalized in 1994, would have violated the Glass-Steagall Act and the Bank Holding Acts by combining insurance and securities companies, if not for a temporary waiver process [1]. The law was passed to legalize these mergers on a permanent basis. Historically, the combined industry has been known as the financial services industry

[jensend]

btw the above is from wikipedia

[agstar77]

The AIG mess stems from its insurance of Bank mortgages. The U.S. is digging itself deeper and deeper . Desparate to avoid a Depression. Unrestrained spending by the Bush regime has led to a toxic mess of financial distress huge deficit and an unpopular foreign adventure. If the U.S. was not running such a huge deficit , it could manage the financial crisis. Meanwhile on the goodship lollipop our fearless leader says we're okay, yeah right! What's Steve's answer, give first time home buyers money to build a new house in a market which will soon have a glut of houses. No wonder we're having an election , the cons could see the writing on the wall and are in panic mode to get re-elected before our economy tanks.

[cottonpicken]

I guess everyone is entitled to an opininion.

The 3800(yes that many) times this has happened before have all gone the same way.