Anyone have any idea why

How about 8 mil a day to Israel?

The repeal of Glass-Steagal in 1999 did not cause the Wall Street meltdown. It's true that the repeal allowed commercial banks to have a dual function as a bank and a securities firm.

Collectively Wall Street firms lost over a Trillion Dollars on transactions involving the mortgage-backed security. Which were sub-prime mortgages grouped together into a security and sold as a bond. Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were the number one and two holders of the mortgage back security. They were brokerage firms, they were not a bank and did not merge with any banks. The banks were selling these securities as well but not to the level of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and AIG. The process of grouping the subprime mortgages together and getting an undeserved Triple "A" rating from the rating houses like Standard and Poor led to the Wall Street meltdown. Lehman Brothers was the first to go bankrupt. They were bankrupt before TARP was formed and could not be saved (bailed out). In October of 2008 all of the big banks failed their stress test and Hank Paulson formerly of Goldman Sachs who worked for Bush43, gave the 8 largest banks their first bailout loan. Study up.

http://www.factcheck.org/2008/10/who...onomic-crisis/

http://www.investopedia.com/articles...s-collapse.asp Originally Posted by flghtr65

Yes the repeal of Glass-Steagal did promote the crisis, just not on Billy Bob's watch. It took time for the results to take their toll.The mortgaged back securities were riddled in toxic assets which were the fruit of de-regulation. These assets were bundled and sold to investors. They made great hay in the sun for a while till the oh shit moment. The time came when those with loans who would have never qualified under the old rules defaulted. Then the wave of foreclosures began and the banks/investors held empty devaluated housing as a return on their investments. There in lies the source of the crash.

Cherie, we could go back to December 2008, when the following companies were all bankrupt and Bush43 was in office.

Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanly, J.P. Morgan/Chase bank, CityGroup, Bank of America, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and dozen other banks, plus GM and Chysler. Originally Posted by flghtr65

Well if those Companies were you or me, there would no government to bail us out. The next persons/Company within that particular area of interest would come along and pick up where you/I left off, and they would treat the consumer right or be out of business. Unfortunately, within the confines of the "Human Condition" when someone/government gives us or our Company something for nothing we have no respect for it. This is the reason I believe the "free market" is the best way, barring, of course certain fraudulent, corrupt, non/misfeasance, but that could certainly be constrained in the illegality of the act, not unlike any other illegal act.