28 years of constant deregulation was the real Wall Street Crime.

[MohRokTah]

It's hard to prosecute somebody for doing something that, at the time it was done was perfectly legal.

[leftstreet]

1. Thanks, Bill Clinton! n/t

[MohRokTah]

3. Thanks Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

They set the ground work.

[baldguy]

8. Right on cue.

[Travis_0004]

9. He did repeal Glass–Steagall

[leftstreet]

10. Google: 'Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act'

President Clinton's tenure was characterized by economic prosperity and financial deregulation, which in many ways set the stage for the excesses of recent years. Among his biggest strokes of free-wheeling capitalism was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, a cornerstone of Depression-era regulation. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. In 1995 Clinton loosened housing rules by rewriting the Community Reinvestment Act, which put added pressure on banks to lend in low-income neighborhoods. I

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877322,00.html

[madokie]

2. That'll get lost on here though

I remember when that wasn't the case

[MohRokTah]

4. Well, yeah.

ITts all Obama and Holder's fault, don'tcha know. They should have prosecuted any way even though there was nothing to make the vast majority of the crap that went down illegal.

[madokie]

6. We know that

you and I and a few others but many don't understand how that all works. Or is seems that way from reading some of the past 5 plus years of posts here

[cali]

5. this is patently untrue. I've posting an op

documenting that what many banks and mortgage firms did was flat out illegal. no doubt. no argument. illegal

[MohRokTah]

7. The vast majority of the crap was legal.

Crimes were committed, no doubt about it.

Prosecutions have happened, no doubt about it.

The vast majority of what lead to the economic apocalypse was LEGAL, though.

[MFrohike]

11. Bullshit

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1348

Oh look, securities fraud is still against the law.

Edit: I'd like to see you prove that contention. Not make general statements or repeat dishonest talking points, but specifically prove that deregulation somehow made fraud, conspiracy, and looting somehow legal.

[kelliekat44]

12. It's a waste of time to try to point out the hypocrisy here. We all know why. nt