As much as I didn’t like Clinton when he was President, statements like this make me almost miss him.
MARIA BARTIROMO:
Mr. President, in 1999 you signed a bill essentially rolling back Glass-Steagall and deregulating banking. In light of what has gone on, do you regret that decision?
FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON:
No, because it wasn’t a complete deregulation at all. We still have heavy regulations and insurance on bank deposits, requirements on banks for capital and for disclosure. I thought at the time that it might lead to more stable investments and a reduced pressure on Wall Street to produce quarterly profits that were always bigger than the previous quarter. But I have really thought about this a lot. I don’t see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch (MER) by Bank of America (BAC), which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn’t signed that bill.
MARIA BARTIROMO:
Phil Gramm, who was then the head of the Senate Banking Committee and until recently a close economic adviser of Senator McCain, was a fierce proponent of banking deregulation. Did he sell you a bill of goods?
FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON:
Not on this bill I don’t think he did. You know, Phil Gramm and I disagreed on a lot of things, but he can’t possibly be wrong about everything. On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I’d be glad to look at the evidence. But I can’t blame [the Republicans]. This wasn’t something they forced me into. I really believed that given the level of oversight of banks and their ability to have more patient capital, if you made it possible for [commercial banks] to go into the investment banking business as Continental European investment banks could always do, that it might give us a more stable source of long-term investment.
Obama makes Clinton look like a right wing conservative and even McCain seems to be running a little left of the Bill Clinton on the Economy.
Yes, Bill and Hillary are right wing conservatives compared to Obama. I consider myself a moderate democrat and Obama scares the heck out of me. Where are all the Republicans? It’s like they’ve all gone underground this campaign. Ya’ll are in our face when there’s a moderate democrat but now when there’s one that’s downright scary, there’s not a Republican to be found! Where’s the October Surprise? Get that bag of tricks out and get busy!!
The Bush administration has been so extreme to the right (fascist) that it has unconsciously shifted people’s judgments about the “position” of a candidate.
Obama is not a liberal …… let alone a progressive.
Twenty years ago he would have been considered a republican.
He is still, by an interpretation of the old republican standard, a “republican lite”.
And the europeans see him as a right-leaning conservative.
Obama is not a liberal …… let alone a progressive.
I suppose on the Internet, nobody knows if you’re insane.
Twenty years ago he would have been considered a republican.
By what standard?
20 years ago, the Republicans were far more to the side of smaller government, lower taxes, individual responsibility and freedom. 20 years ago, Obama was working in the Daley Machine.
Somehow, I don’t think any Republicans get employed by Daley.
let alone a progressive.
What we know of Obama demonstrates he’s the most liberal, progressive politician to reach national prominence.
We know there’s more he’s not revealing.