Robert Scheer on the Clinton administration's role in the current economic mess:

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Since the collapse happened on the watch of President George W. Bush at the end of two full terms in office, many in the Democratic Party were only too eager to blame his administration. Yet while Bush did nothing to remedy the problem, and his response was to simply reward the culprits, the roots of this disaster go back much further, to the free-market propaganda of the Reagan years and, most damagingly, to the bipartisan deregulation of the banking industry undertaken with the full support of "liberal" President Clinton. Yes, Clinton. And if this debacle needs a name, it should most properly be called "the Clinton bubble," as difficult as it may be to accept for those of us who voted for him.

Clinton, being a smart person and an astute politician, did not use old ideological arguments to do away with New Deal restrictions on the banking system, which had been in place ever since the Great Depression threatened the survival of capitalism. His were the words of technocrats, arguing that modern technology, globalization, and the increased sophistication of traders meant the old concerns and restrictions were outdated. By "modernizing" the economy, so the promise went, we would free powerful creative energies and create new wealth for a broad spectrum of Americans -- not to mention boosting the Democratic Party enormously, both politically and financially.

And it worked: Traditional banks freed by the dissolution of New Deal regulations became much more aggressive in investing deposits, snapping up financial services companies in a binge of acquisitions. These giant conglomerates then bet long on a broad and limitless expansion of the economy, making credit easy and driving up the stock and real estate markets to unseen heights. Increasingly complicated yet wildly profitable securities--especially so-called over-the-counter derivatives (OTC), which, as their name suggests, are financial instruments derived from other assets or products -- proved irresistible to global investors, even though few really understood what they were buying. Those transactions in suspect derivatives were negotiated in markets that had been freed from the obligations of government regulation and would grow in the year 2009 to more than $600 trillion.

Beginning in the early '90s, this innovative system for buying and selling debt grew from a boutique, almost experimental, Wall Street business model to something so large that, when it collapsed a little more than a decade later, it would cause a global recession. Along the way, only a few people possessed enough knowledge and integrity to point out that the growth and profits it was generating were, in fact, too good to be true. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/the-great-american-sticku_1_b_715952.html

[HillbillyBob]

1. Truely obscene what they have done to us

the former middle class.
I see the unrec pigs have been here already. I would not even have commented if they had not unrecced.

[marmar]

2. It's a very hard truth for people to accept.....but they need to deal with it.

nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. A-Fucking-Men!

Scheer is absolutely correct about Clinton and absolutely correct about the willing ignorance of so many traditional, progressive, liberal Democrats. The fact is that Clinton's political strategy could be summed up by offering that, in many instances, he simply took Republican positions and rebranded them making them his own. From NAFTA to the deregulation binge of the 1990s, Clinton was masterful at capturing and occupying the ideological ground of conservatives which kept them so off-balance that they had to resort to uglier and more divisive politics in an attempt to draw a distinction between Clinton and the GOP in the minds of the American public.

We are seeing the same political strategy today from the Obama Administration. They have learned very well that corporate interests and the wealthy elite will reward those that play ball regardless of D or R after their name. The Obama Administration has adopted the tactic of taking right-wing positions that favor the elite and rebranding them as their own (Healthcare "reform", Credit Card "reform",SS reform).