JRK.
I agree on Clinton. He didn't just deregulate financial markets, but he sold the American worker down river with NAFTA, and made larger cuts to welfare than any president in history. This is why I supported Ross Perot.
FDR created Glass-Stegall because he believed that
government regulation was necessary to stabilize financial markets. He believed that markets, left to their own device, would swing wildly from boom to bust, and wreak havoc on the country. He thought that
intelligently executed oversight would curb the rough edges of capitalism, which periodically chokes itself on risk, as people herd themselves hysterically into asset bubbles, seduced by the possibility of easy money. [Old time religious conservatives understood the power of money to blind people (which is why many of them accepted FDR's regulations), but Reagan, working on behalf of business, sold America on Homo Economicus, i.e., the belief that rational self interest can defeat the green demon within. Hubris!]
But the fact remains: when Reagan came to power, he convinced Americans that government should not play any role in markets. He believed that financial innovators should be able to regulate their own risk, and that self-interested financial firms didn't need a government bureaucrat to tell them how to protect share holders. Reagan thought self-interest could take the place not only of Glass-Stegall, but all regulations. Greenspan, a primary collaborator with Ayn Rand, felt the exact same way. This is why he called sub-primes a miraculous invention, and proceeded to convince America that these new financial instruments would safely expand home ownership without risk. Greenspan's faith in unregulated markets was made possible by Reagan, who moved the ideological pendulum away from the regulatory state envisioned by FDR. Like FDR, Reagan pulled both parties into his orbit. Just as Eisenhower and Nixon supported the New Deal, democratic presidents after Reagan would support deregulation.
Clinton represents the death of FDR and the liberal regulatory model. He represents the final victory of the Reagan Revolution.
Regarding Bush, you are urged to watch this entire video. He put kerosene on the fire at a time when the economy was not in a position to absorb the shock. The game is over. We swallowed poison in 1980 - Clinton and Bush merely represent the final stages of our financial death.
YouTube - ‪Home Ownership and President Bush‬‏
