Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Marshall Auerback — The Financial Crisis Of 2008 Can Be Laid At The Door Of The Clinton Administration

The usual hagiography, particularly amongst Democrats, is that the US got seriously off track during the Bush (II) presidency after the golden years of prosperity under the Presidency of Bill Clinton. That myth has afflicted much policy making amongst the party today, notably within the Obama Administration, which hired a lot of the ex-Rubinites responsible for creating the mess.
And there’s a lot more evidence that has come out to support the view that Clinton’s crew truly was “the wrecking crew” when it came to dismantling many of the protections that had afforded much financial stability to the US for much of the post World War II era....
Macrobits by Marshall Auerback
The Financial Crisis Of 2008 Can Be Laid At The Door Of The Clinton Administration
Marshall Auerback

6 comments:

Roger Erickson said...

Bipartisan crooks:

2008 Set In Motion by Clinton Administration, further gamed by both Bush & Obama administrations

Ryan Harris said...

According to bloomberg, the average (not median!) salary of the employees of the OCC, FDIC and FED have risen to about ~$190,000/yr with virtually no professional risk, no performance requirements and no chance of criminal prosecution while the average banker(not median! -- highly skewed by those at the top) make ~$45,000 yr with lots of professional risk. As the entire financial system crumbled due to lack of regulation, the regulate-sters were taking home giant bonuses and pay increases for themselves while the public and investors suffered trillions of dollars of real losses. All the while, no bankers were prosecuted for the mortgage mess and few enforcement actions were issued until after the banking system collapsed and market values of bank assets collapsed.

Ryan Harris said...

Someone, whether Clinton, Bush, or whoever was putting pressure on regulators not to regulate needs to be prosecuted along with the regulators that collected pay checks and bonuses but refused to do their job out because they were corrupted by politicians or bankers or who ever.

Tom Hickey said...

Hard to prove intent or negligence, but Alan Greenspan as the Fed chair was chief regulator and his ideology was privatization and deregulation. In addition all administration from Carter on have believed in neoliberal principles as policy guides.

Ryan Harris said...

But I mean if Rubin can't be held responsible, if Greenspan can't, what more evidence of corruption do we need? Maybe the legal definition of corruption needs to be changed. 126 million dollars paid to him by Citi stinks!

We can't hold bankers responsible because and we can't hold regulators responsible... I don't buy it. Its pure insanity, we need to demand better, it's our country not "theirs" who ever they turn out to be.

Tom Hickey said...

Couldn't agree more, which is why I tag there posts not only crony capitalism but also corruption. Cronyism is corruption. Privilege and double standards corrupt the system. The problem is that a lot of corruption has been legalized for the top, or else so narrowly defined that no one can be held responsible. And if some at the top might be, then they are let off because.....