thunder wrote:
On Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:35:03 -0400, HK wrote:


If you look backwards to some legislation good old Phil Gramm
promulgated, you'll find some answers. Look up the Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act. It allowed all sorts of financial mergers, such as the ones between
banks and insurance companies, and, bascially, deregulated the financial
services company.

In other words, it was a license for greed.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was a mistake, but it allowed this to happen.
It didn't cause this to happen. In the markets, greed has been, and will
be around forever. Nothing wrong with that, but it has to be balanced
with risk. IMO, it's the government's job to protect the economy from
the inevitable greed-risk imbalances. Some smart, hopefully minimal,
regulations have to be put in place to keep this disaster from happening
again. I would start by repealing Gramm-Leach-Bliley.


That's a start. And I would also suggest that *all* financial
institutions be oversighted and regulated by effective state insurance
commissions who have the power to come in at anytime, unannounced, pull
the books and padlock the doors, if deemed necessary. I would also
stipulate more examinations by organizations like A.M. Best, which
investigates and rates insurance companies.

I'm also not a fan of the big national banks, and never have been. The
remaining solid ones out to be broken up into state or at best regional
entities.