--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > pranamoocher wrote: > > Palin keeps trying to stick to her notes, > > while Biden is pointedly making Palin's > > statements look inaccurate. > > > "THE FACTS: Biden voted for 1999 deregulation > that liberal groups are blaming for part of > the financial crisis today. The law allowed > Wall Street investment banks to create the > kind of mortgage-related securities at the > core of the problem now.
Gee, Solomon Bros and Drexel created these instruments in the 80's -- and the business, as well as the wider derivative business flourished in the later 80's and 90s. How exactly did the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall Act allow investment banks to "begin" to create these instruments? By the way, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with derivatives. They have not caused the crisis. What caused the crisis was massive over investment in real estate, wholesale speculation by small time "flippers" and individuals trying to make a quick buck before the market crashed (as everyone knew it would) -- all fueled by excessive and very cheap money from repeated Fed interventions -- and the non-enforcement or bending of lending laws (liar loans etc) -- and lack of due dilligence on the part of many "got-to-buy- NOW" home-buyers. >The law was widely > backed by Republicans as well as by Democratic > President Clinton, who argues it has stopped > the crisis today from being worse." > > Read more: > > 'Some facts adrift in veep debate' > By Calvin Woodward > Associated Press, October 3, 2008 > http://tinyurl.com/43o4sq >
