MotherJones Blog: Was Obama Economic Envoy Part of the Problem?

MotherJones Blog: Was Obama Economic Envoy Part of the Problem?
Obama is sending former Congressman Jim Leach to the G-20 summit. When he was in Congress he chaired the House Banking Committee and was one of the major proponents of passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley legislation (see that "Leach" in the title?). That's the bill that ended the separation of commercial and investment banking. You know--the law that Obama said was passed because of evil "special interests" and caused the collapse of the credit markets? Republicans blamed in on government forcing banks to lend to unqualified people, but Democrats pointed to deregulation of the financial markets. They also demonized Phil Gramm on that score, and here is Leach on the same bill.