Democratic Sen. Bryan Dorgan of ND Predicts the Future

[solemole]

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/05/b...nk-laws.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1

This is from the NYTimes from November, 1999. The article is titled, "Congress Passes Wide-Ranging Bill Easing Bank Laws" about the repeal of Glass-Steagall a Depression-Era law to separate bankers and brokers:

"'I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. "'I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.'"

 

[Kieran McConville]

the lessons of history are hard in coming. I must say it's a relief, on the whole, to be living through an historical event which isn't compared to World War II and Hitler. No, this time, we're turning our looking glass back just a tad to the early 1930s.

 

[AliEnvy]

You can bet back in '99 that the reaction to Dorgan's comments was that he was an out of touch, anti-progress wingnut. Maybe he actually represented his constituents rather than being bought and paid for by special interest? Not likely but I guess being in ND his masters weren't in the finance sector.

If we are repeating the patterns of the early 30s then we are setting the stage for another world war and probably at an accelerated pace.

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[Kieran McConville]

Well the patterns that led to the second world war (the european part of it, anyway) were set in 1918. Another world war is not inevitable.

If we're repeating the patterns of the early 1930s then we'll just have to work through them and hope for the best.

 

[DontExpect]

Dorgan is a great Senator. I'm currently working a voter-education company and one of his speeches to the Senate was circulating around here last week:

Project Vote Smart - Senator Byron L. Dorgan - Financial Bailouts

Very interesting stuff, but he's not the most powerful of speakers, so no heads turn we he's on camera sadly...