Ex-CITIGROUP CEO Blames Glass-Steagall Repeal for Financial Crisis

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5. File also under: Be careful what you wish for

Yeah, letting the greediest motherfuckers on the planet regulate themselves was a real stroke of genius. Who knew they'd just grab as much as they could and let their banks and financial institutions just fall to pieces over bad debts, uncollectible loans, and overpriced commodities? Why, you'd have to be some kind of financial wizard to see that coming!

As Citibank's last president John Reed remarked: You put brakes on a car not so you can stop it, but so that you can go fast. How fast would you go in a car that you knew didn't have any brakes? Would you even get in a car without brakes? When the regulatory framework is removed, finance and capital merge, and sure as shit somebody's going to be making reckless investments because the promised returns were just too good and the window of opportunity was closing. We had to plunge or the shareholders could have sued us for not making a big enough profit!