Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader pens a scathing critique of what caused the current problems on Wall Street but conveniently neglects to mention the roles of Joe Biden and former President Clinton in the financial mess.
Ralph Nader begins his editorial in the
Counterpunch newsletter by criticizing right wingers in the media and Congress who are claiming that the Democrat-dominated Congress of 1977 caused our current financial problems by passing the
Community Reinvestment Act. It was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter.
The Community Reinvestment Act required banks to report on where and to whom they were making loans. It was passed into law because banks were discriminating against minority borrowers. The Nader article on the
Counterpunch website states what banks were doing to poor neighborhoods prior to the passage of the law:
''Redlining'' was the name given to the preactice by banks of literally drawing a red line around minority areas and then proceeding to deny people within the red border home loans-even if they were otherwise qualified.''
Congress repealed the
Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 with the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. The Glass-Steagall Act was designed to separate banking from securities activities. Nader fails to mention that President Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act into law. He also fails to mention that Democratic Vice Presidential candidate
Joe Biden voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act of 1999.