WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The biggest change in the nation's banking system since the Great Depression became law Friday, when President Bill Clinton signed a measure overhauling federal rules governing the way financial institutions operate.

"This legislation is truly historic and it indicates what can happen when Republicans and Democrats work together in a spirit of genuine cooperation," Clinton said at a White House signing ceremony. The event brought together the president and several Republican members of Congress who have been among Clinton's sternest critics -- a sign of the bipartisan support that eventually developed for the package.

Congress passed the bipartisan measure November 5, opening the way for a blossoming of financial "supermarkets" selling loans, investments and insurance. Proponents had pushed the legislation in Congress for two decades, and Wall Street and the banking and insurance industries had poured millions of dollars into lobbying for it in the past few years.
Clinton signs banking overhaul measure - November 12, 1999

Oversight, transparency and accountability - these three words likely will replace the old trifecta of "waste, fraud and abuse." Of course, Washington should regulate Wall Street, but the fact is that Group Think will not go away, and whatever tight regulations might percolate in the next year will become watered down over time - because they always have a persuasive argument to do so. That's what Washington does, and both parties have participated.

For his part, GOP nominee John McCain has stood against that tide of facilitating corporate misbehavior. The Washington Post editorialized last week against Barack Obama's campaigns charge that McCain is anti-regulation. Au contraire, if found on reviewing McCain' record, the Arizona senator was "a leader" in cleaning up shoddy accounting practices after the Enron scandal.

"In 2006," the Post editorialized, McCain "pushed for stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - while Mr. Obama was notably silent. 'If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole,' McCain warned at the time."
The bailout from hell

In light of the collapse of Fannie and Freddie, both John McCain and Barack Obama now criticize the risk-tolerant regulatory regime that produced the current crisis. But Sen. McCain's criticisms are at least credible, since he has been pointing to systemic risks in the mortgage market and trying to do something about them for years. In contrast, Sen. Obama's conversion as a financial reformer marks a reversal from his actions in previous years, when he did nothing to disturb the status quo. The first head of Mr. Obama's vice-presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, a former chairman of Fannie Mae, was the one who announced Fannie's original affordable-housing program in 1991 -- just as Congress was taking up the first GSE regulatory legislation.

In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then under Republican control, adopted a strong reform bill, introduced by Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole, John Sununu and Chuck Hagel, and supported by then chairman Richard Shelby. The bill prohibited the GSEs from holding portfolios, and gave their regulator prudential authority (such as setting capital requirements) roughly equivalent to a bank regulator. In light of the current financial crisis, this bill was probably the most important piece of financial regulation before Congress in 2005 and 2006. All the Republicans on the Committee supported the bill, and all the Democrats voted against it. Mr. McCain endorsed the legislation in a speech on the Senate floor. Mr. Obama, like all other Democrats, remained silent.
Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess - WSJ.com

Not good for the dems in my opinion, people are going to want to know who and when. Should make for GREAT debate material in the future.

Have a good one!:s4:
Psycho4Bud Reviewed by Psycho4Bud on . CNN poll: GOP takes brunt of blame for economy; Obama gains The timing of this financial crisis is really bad news for McCain. My feeling is that is why both Bush and McCain had been saying the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" right up to the moment the Treasurey Secretary said we are on the brink of a major meltdown and possibly a depression, and we need a trillion dollars to fix it. They wanted to deny the economy was in trouble in order to minimize it as a political issue. But now the crisis is too big to ignore, and people are blaming the Rating: 5