Did you ever hear of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act?

If you have never heard of this Act, you might want to learn more.  This act perhaps more than any other action is responsible for our recent financial meltdown.  Why isn’t it in the papers more prominently as a major contributing factor, most likely it was because the Act was signed into law by President Clinton.  Yes, it is true that the Act was crafted and pushed by three Republicans at the behest of the financial industry.  However, the Act was eventually supported by Democrats and signed by Clinton.  Between this Act and later members of Congress pushing home ownership at any cost, our politicians created the perfect storm…and it is till raining heavily on some Americans as a result.

The following is from Wikipedia 

Legislative history

Final Congressional vote by chamber and party, November 4, 1999

The banking industry had been seeking the repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act since the 1980s, if not earlier. In 1987 the Congressional Research Service prepared a report that explored the cases for and against preserving the Glass-Steagall act.^[2]

Respective versions of the legislation were introduced in the U.S. Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the U.S. House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa). The third lawmaker associated with the bill was Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (R-Virginia), Chairman of the House Commerce Committee from 1995 to 2001.

The House passed its version of the Financial Services Act of 1999 on 1 July 1999 by a bipartisan vote of 343-86 (Republicans 205–16; Democrats 138–69; Independent 0–1),^[3][4][5] two months after the Senate had already passed its version of the bill on May 6 by a much-narrower 54–44 vote along basically-partisan lines (53 Republicans and one Democrat in favor; 44 Democrats opposed).^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

When the two chambers could not agree on a joint version of the bill, the House voted on July 30 by a vote of 241-132 (R 58-131; D 182-1; Ind. 1–0) to instruct its negotiators to work for a law which ensured that consumers enjoyed medical and financial privacy as well as “robust competition and equal and non-discriminatory access to financial services and economic opportunities in their communities” (i.e., protection against exclusionary redlining).^[11]

The bill then moved to a joint conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. Democrats agreed to support the bill after Republicans agreed to strengthen provisions of the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act and address certain privacy concerns; the conference committee then finished its work by the beginning of November.^{[8] [12]} On November 4, the final bill resolving the differences was passed by the Senate 90-8,^[13][14] and by the House 362-57.^[15][16] This legislation was signed into law by Democratic President William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton on November 12, 1999.^[17]

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