The aforementioned 1999 legislation, pushed through Congress by then-Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, repealed the 65-year-old Glass-Steagall Act. In late September, Obama was blasting Gramm as “the architect in the United States Senate of the deregulatory steps that helped cause this mess.” Glass-Steagall had mandated separation of commercial banking, based on deposits, from investment banking, based on issuing and trading securities such as stocks and bonds. The financial community had long ago eaten gaping loopholes in this Swiss-cheese regulation, attempting to compete with the universal banks of Europe, which had never suffered such confused rules.
Bill Clinton, who signed the legislation, and his treasury secretary, who told him to do so, Obama adviser Robert Rubin, have both said as much. The bill passed the Senate 90-8, with the votes of Obama supporters Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, and Tom Daschle.
clipped from: article.nationalreview.com