"Ten years ago, Congress repealed this archaic and useless little law called Glass-Steagal, because Larry Summers wanted a cushy gig at Citigroup."

90 More Geniuses For You to Blame [History]

from Gawker by Pareene

Ten years ago, Congress repealed this archaic and useless little law called Glass-Steagal, because Larry Summers wanted a cushy gig at Citigroup.

As we now know, and as NO ONE COULD'VE FORESEEN THEN, repealing Glass-Steagal really helped eventually break the whole world economy. Cajun Boy went back and read the Times article about the vote, because he is hoping one of his readers has a time machine. The piece probably ran on page A52 or something too, right?

Many of the people who were 100% wrong on this are, of course, still respected and important. Well, no one takes Phil Gramm seriously. But Larry Summers is advising another president!

'Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,'' Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said. ''This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.''

Hah. And hey, who's that, with the money quote? Why it's the president of the liberal New School, that famed war criminal Bob "universally loathed" Kerrey:

''The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown,'' said Senator Bob Kerrey, Democrat of Nebraska.

Well how we he to know? It's not like anyone actually saw this coming! Hah, except this LIBERAL NUTCASE:

''Glass-Steagall was intended to protect our financial system by insulating commercial banking from other forms of risk. It was one of several stabilizers designed to keep a similar tragedy from recurring. Now Congress is about to repeal that economic stabilizer without putting any comparable safeguard in its place.''

Man, who's this joker, Lyndon LaRouche? No, it was this guy named Paul Wellstone—who was actually a Senator himself! But then the CIA killed him. It was pretty fucked up.

But yes, as usual, it's the serious-minded "centrist" Senate "grownups" who reach across the aisle who FUCK EVERYTHING UP. They are the reason the Senate is fundamentally undemocratic and it should be abolished. Some fucking jerkoff from Nebraska can hold the country hostage because they're trying to fix the inefficiencies that enrich his precious student loan companies.

The Senate is broken and its "centrists" are all the worst examples of politicians this country manages to produce—we would take actual criminals over them, in fact, because criminals don't consider their base motivations the sober, patriotic, wise judgment of true independent statesmen. Well, maybe Blago does.