More on Republicans, Democrats and Banks

After posting the previous post about the results of the two periods that Republicans controlled Government, I got to thinking about the fact that Bank failures were key to the great depression and the great recession (or whatever we end up calling it) that we are experiencing right now. I am old enough to remember the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980's that ended up costing taxpayers some 700 billion dollars or so to bail out bad financial decisions. I remember vaguely there was some legislation in the early years of President Reagan's presidency, that loosened up the restrictions on Savings and Loans that had been imposed after the disaster of the Great Depression. I don't recall the specific legislation, I do recall 5 Senator's later faced ethics charges for their activities relating to loosening up the regulation of Savings and Loans. Anyone out there remember the specific legislation? I will work up a little history of it if someone can identify the public law number.

But I went back to see who was controlling the levers of Government at that time. Ronald Reagan had been elected in a landslide in 1980 (and I voted for him). Republicans took control of the Senate, although Democrats continued to hold a substantial majority in the House. That situation continued - Republicans controlling the Senate and the Presidency, Democrats controlling the House, from 1980 through 1987. So it appears the Democrats get to share at least some of the responsibility for the legislation that set up the $700 billion dollar bill to the taxpayers for bailing out Savings and Loans. Once I identify the specific legislation I will do a blog on who was actively pushing it and what the justifications were.