The AP squarely blamed McCain advisor (and probable Treasury Secretary if McCain wins in November) for the current meltdown of Wall Street:
Some seeds of the current crisis were planted in the late 1990s, when Congress and President Clinton reshaped the financial landscape. They removed Depression-era barriers between commercial banks and investment firms and allowed the creation of financial behemoths where, years later, the risks of underwriting risky subprime mortgages were somewhat hidden.
A chief author of that law was Phil Gramm, then a Republican senator from Texas and until recently one of McCain's top economic advisers.
McCain voted for a Senate version of the bill but did not vote on the final package. Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden voted against the Senate version but for the final compromise that was signed by Clinton.
Full article at http://ap.google.com/...
The AP faults Clinton for signing the bill, but hey, no mention that republicans controlled Congress then.
Talk about McCain continuing business as usual! I don't know about you, but the prospect of McCain, who has been completely bought and paid for by Gramm and his ilk, makes me sick.
Obama needs to to respond by pointing the finger squarely at Republicans, specifically naming McCain and Gramm, and telling the public that he will revamp the laissez-faire policies of the last 2 1/2 decades.
This whole banking deregulation allowed the Wall Street firms to engage in the same kinds of practices Enron engaged in (perhaps without the actual intent to defraud, but who knows). As a result of Gramm's legislation, non-bank firms (like Bear Stearns, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, etc.) got into the banking business by making lots of loans, but they were not required to have the capital reserves that banks are required to have to cover those loans. (Banks generate capital reserves from the deposit accounts of their customers.) Banks hate capital reserves, and view them as essentially forcing them to hold idle money. No such problem for Wall Street, except when confidence in their assets (loans are assets to these institutions) crumbles, which is what is happening now. Paul Krugman has a pretty good article on it - see http://www.nytimes.com/...
In any event. all I know is that Obama has to get on this issue forcefully and specifically. Sure hope Axelrod and Plouffe read dkos.
UPDATE: The point of the post is not for us to blame or rag on the Clintons, but for Obama to specifcally and forcefully blame Gamm/McCain ("I was in charge of the whole economy")for this whole mess.