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South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Banking meltdown work of donkeys, elephants
By Lorraine Wagner
September 30, 2008
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Re "In bank meltdown, writing was on Wall" by Editorial Page Editor
Antonio Fins (Sept. 19): Mr. Fins plays the game, "Pin the tail on the
donkey," stating it was Bill Clinton in 1999 who caused Wall Street
deregulation, allowing unimpeded mergers of banks, insurance companies
and brokerages to go wild.
Mr.
Fins, you should have chosen a much older donkey. The seeds of
deregulation started with Jimmy Carter, who had the help of Paul
Volcker, who was chair of the Federal Reserve and still an active
"player." Rep. Fernand St. Germain, who in 1981 became chair of the
House Banking Committee, was working in the shadows and got passage of
a new law, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary
Control Act. This opened the floodgates to casino-type looting.
Let
the games begin. But the standard of living declined, interest rates
rose, assembly lines closed, etc. S&Ls became insolvent and
bankrupt. Regulators delayed shutting them down for some years,
allowing them to go on losing billions of dollars, which the taxpayers
had to pay down the line.
The biggest "backside and tail"
belong to the elephants. Ronald Reagan took deregulation to new depths.
S&Ls, banks, along with airlines, media and airwaves, became fodder
for the greedy. The vault was not only opened to the crooks; now they
could own them. The stampede of trumpeting elephants was in step with
the braying of the donkeys. Of course, "the tail" was really pinned on
taxpayers.
The years of Reagan/Bush gave us shady hedge funds,
sub-prime crimes, the "Cheating Keating Five" (McCain being one of the
five), Karl Rove, et. al.
I don't disagree with Mr. Fins
regarding Bill Clinton's part in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall law,
which allowed more deregulation and greed.
Let us not forget
the "elephant in the room," Presiden Bush. We're going to need a very
big shovel to clean up that mess. That is, if we can.
I've
written about the early '80s, and what I think has led to our present
dilemma. I'm the same age as Grampy McCain, and if our ancestors were
still alive, they'd no doubt tell us about the Robber Barons of the
1890s, or of Charles Ponzi, the notorious swindler of the 1920s. Will
we ever learn from the past? Grandma Wagner and Mr. Fins will have to
ponder: Will we be "cleaning up" after a donkey or elephant after the
November election?
Lorraine Wagner is a resident of Davie.
By far, deregulation is a republican standpoint I have to say, not a Democratic one.