All the Presidents' Bankers (96 page)

70
. G. Bruce Knecht, “Major U.S. Banks Plan Units in Mexico—Move Could Help Modernize Financial Infrastructure,”
Wall Street Journal,
May 31, 1994.

71
. Ibid.

72
. H.R. 3841, 103rd Congress: Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994, at
www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/103/hr3841
.

73
. Clinton Presidential Records, WHORM, Subject File: General, FG001–07, Folder 28562055, September 29, 1994, William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

74
. Clinton Presidential Records, WHORM, Subject File: General, FG001–07, Folder 28562055, FI002, 082208SS [OA/ID 21860], September 29, 1994, Schedule for the President, Clinton Library.

75
. William J. Clinton, “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)—Remarks to the National Urban League,” US Government Printing Office, August 4, 1993, at
www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PPP-1993-book2/html/PPP-1993-book2-doc-pg1328.htm
.

76
. Kenneth Cline, “McColl Plays Down Starring Role in Long Campaign for Branching,”
American Banker,
September 15, 1994.

77
. Clinton Presidential Records, September 29, 1994. In July 1992, Clinton and McColl met over southern comfort food at a Holiday Inn in Valdosta, Georgia—“Rice and butter beans and tomato and okra,” McColl later recalled—and discussed banking deregulation and horse-trading. In exchange for McColl’s promise to support inner-city banks, Clinton agreed to support interstate banking. Sure enough, two years later he signed the Interstate Banking Act. Two years after the Chemical and Chase merger in 1995, McColl’s NationsBank acquired Barnett for four times its book value. The last of McColl’s conquests was the $62 billion merger between Bank of America and NationsBank in late September 1998, which put him at the helm of Bank of America.

78
. Clinton Presidential Records, September 29, 1994, Clinton Library.

79
. Clinton Presidential Records, 082208SS and 088313 [OA/ID 21860], November 19, 1994. The turnaround time for this thank-you was longer than that of other presidents to supporters in similar instances.

80
. EIU, “Mexico Finance: The Peso Crisis, Ten Years On,” January 3, 2005.

81
. Louis Uchitelle, “US Losses in Mexico Assessed,”
New York Times,
December 26, 1994.

82
. James Gerstenzang, “Bentsen Resigns; Clinton Drafts Wall Street Veteran,”
Chicago Sun-Times,
December 7, 1994.

83
. Joseph A. Whitt Jr., “The Mexican Peso Crisis,” Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,
Economic Review,
January/February 1996, at
www.frbatlanta.org/filelegacydocs/J_whi811.pdf
. Zedillo took office following the March 23 assassination of Luis Colosio. He later joined the board of Citicorp and became a professor at Yale. He was also given immunity for a massacre in the Zapatista/Chiapas region, where forty-five indigenous Mexicans were murdered. See Daniel Sisgoreo and Tapley Stephenson, “State Department Seeks Immunity for Zedillo,”
Yale Daily News,
September 10, 2012, at
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/09/10/state-dept-suggests-immunity-for-zedillo/
.

84
. Robert Rubin,
In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington
(New York, NY: Random House, 2004), 5.

85
. Clinton,
My Life,
641.

86
. Ibid.

87
. “Mexico’s Financial Crisis—Origins, Awareness, Assistance, and Initial Efforts to Recover,” US General Accounting Office, Report to the Chairman, Committee on Banking and Financial Services House of Representatives, February 1996, at
www.gao.gov/archive/1996/gg96056.pdf
.

88
. Clinton,
My Life,
643. Clinton wrote, “Rubin and Summers came to the White House to see Leon Panetta and Sandy Berger, who was handling the issue for the National Security Council.”

89
. James R. Kraus, “Clinton’s Executive Order to Back Peso Raises New Worries on Bank Exposure,”
American Banker,
February 1, 1995.

90
. James H. Rubin, “Rubin Denies Any Personal Financial Interest in Mexico Deal,” Associated Press, February 23, 1995, at
www.apnewsarchive.com/1995/Rubin-Denies-Any-Personal-Financial-Interest-in-Mexico-Deal/id-200a13019d2f48ddaf88bc414145182d
.

91
. “Mexican Peso Crisis and Bailout,”
Congressional Record
141, no. 43 (March 8, 1995), Government Printing Office, at
www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1995–03–08/html/CREC-1995–03–08-pt1-PgS3664–4.htm
.

92
. Anthony DePalma, “In Land of the Peso, the Dollar Is Common Coin,”
New York Times,
November 21, 1995.

93
. William J. Clinton, “The President’s News Conference with President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico,” October 10, 1995, American Presidency Project, at
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=50633
.

94
. “Citi Board Nominates Ernesto Zedillo to Board of Directors,” Citibank press release, February 26, 2010, at
www.citigroup.com/citi/press/2010/100226a.htm
.

95
. Nomi Prins,
It Takes a Pillage
(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009), 147.

96
. Keith Bradsher, “No New Deal for Banking; Efforts to Drop Depression-Era Barriers Stall, Again,”
New York Times,
November 2, 1995.

Chapter 18. The Late 1990s: Currency Crises and Glass-Steagall Demise

1
. William J. Clinton, “Statement on Signing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act,” November 12, 1999, American Presidency Project, at
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=56922#ixzz2hOCPkNPf
.

2
. Nomi Prins,
Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America
(New York, NY: New Press, 2004). Based on information compiled from Thomson Financial databases for the book.

3
. Ibid.

4
. Suzanne McGee, “Monday’s Markets: Dow Breaks 6,000, but for How Long?”
Wall Street Journal,
October 15, 1996.

5
. Dole won 40.7 percent of the popular vote and 159 votes in the Electoral College. Perot received only 8.4 percent of the popular vote.

6
. Alan Greenspan, “The Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society,” Federal Reserve, December 5, 1996, at
www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/1996/19961205.htm
.

7
. Leslie Eaton, “Investment Fraud Is Soaring Along with the Stock Market,”
New York Times,
November 30, 1997.

8
. “Holding Companies Engaged in Underwriting and Dealing in Securities,” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, March 6, 1997, at
www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/boardacts/1996/19961220/R-0841.pdf
. See also
www.newyorkfed.org/banking/circulars/10922.html
.

9
. Rolfe Winkler, “Bring Back Glass-Steagall,” Reuters, January 21, 2008.

10
. “Section 20 Subsidiaries of Bank Holding Companies,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Supervision and Regulation, September 4, 1997, at
www.newyorkfed.org/banking/circulars/10979.html
.

11
. Ibid.

12
. Rachel Beck, “Travelers Group Buys Salomon for Over $9 Billion,” Associated Press, September 24, 1997.

13
. Dimon Biography, J. P. Morgan & Company website, at
www.jpmorgan.com/cm/BlobServer/hy_bio_dimon.pdf?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1320592119839&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs
.

14
. “Traveler’s Sandy Weill Breaks Bank,”
New York Post,
March 13, 1998.

15
. “IMF Welcomes Thailand’s Exchange Rate Action,” International Monetary Fund news brief, July 2, 1997, at
www.imf.org/external/np/sec/nb/1997/nb9712.htm
.

16
. Joseph A. Whitt Jr., “The Mexican Peso Crisis, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,
Economic Review,
January/February 1996, at
www.frbatlanta.org/filelegacydocs/J_whi811.pdf
.

17
. Patrick Buchanan, “Bagmen Rubin, Camdessus Bear the Blame for Asian Crisis,”
Insight on the News,
February 16, 1998.

18
. Timothy O’Brien, Edmund Andrews, and Sheryl WuDunn, “Covering Asia with Cash: Banks Poured Money into Region Despite Warning Signs,”
New York Times,
January 28, 1998.

19
. “Korea Letter of Intent,” International Monetary Fund, December 3, 1997, at
www.imf.org/external/np/loi/120397.HTM
.

20
. “The Asian Crisis: Causes and Cures,” International Monetary Fund,
Finance and Development
35, no. 2 (June 1998), at
www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/1998/06/imfstaff.htm
.

21
. Timothy O’Brien, “Jockeying for Position in South Korea—U.S. Bankers Prepare for Talks with the Fed,”
New York Times,
December 27, 1997.

22
. William J. Clinton, “Response to the Lewinsky Allegations,” January 26, 1998, University of Virginia Miller Center, at
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3930
.

23
. “The Long Demise of Glass-Steagall,”
Frontline
(PBS), at
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html
.

24
. “Watch Out for the Egos,”
The Economist,
April 11, 1998.

25
. Lauren Thierry, “Travelers/Citicorp Press Conference,”
Trading Places
(CNNfn), April 6, 1998.

26
. “Worldcom: The Players: The Wall Street Fix,”
Frontline
(PBS), May 8, 2003 at
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/wcom/players.html
.

27
. CNBC News Transcripts, Show: Dow 9000, April 6, 1998, National Economic Council, Files of Sally Katzen [OA/box Number [OD] 17444], Folder: Citicorp/Travelers[1], Clinton Library.

28
. Email from Sarah Rosen, Subject: Travelers-Citicorp Merger, April 6, 1998, Automated Records Management System (ARMS) (email), OPD [Citicorp and Travelers Group Merge] [April 6, 1998, to April 9, 1998] [OA/ID 250000], Clinton Library.

29
. Email from Sarah Rosen to Lael Brainard, Brian A. Barreto, cc: Sally Katzen, April 9, 1998, ARMS (email), folder CEA (Citicorp and Travelers Group Merge) [April 9, 1998, to May 13, 1998] [OA/ID 950000], Clinton Library.

30
. Email from John Taylor and Josh Silver to Friends of Community Reinvestment, re: Moratorium on megamergers, April 23, 1998, ARMS (email), folder CEA (Citicorp and Travelers Group Merge) [April 9, 1998, to May 13, 1998] [OA/ID 950000], Clinton Library.

31
. Email: Text of Testimony by Andrew C. Hove Jr. on Mergers in the Financial Service Industry before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, April 29, 1998, ARMS (email), Folder: Interstate Banking and Branch Efficiency Act, January 3, 1995, to April 23, 2000, Clinton Library.

32
. Email to Dorothy Robyn, Subject: Mergers, May 13, 1998, ARMS (email), Folder: CEA (Citicorp and Travelers Group Merge) [April 9, 1998, to May 13, 1998] [OA/ID 950000], Clinton Library. See also Steve Holland, “Clinton Authorizes Group to Monitor Merger Mania,” Reuters, May 13, 1998.

33
. Ibid.

34
. Ibid.

35
. “The Long Demise of Glass-Steagall.”

36
. “H.R. 10 (105th): Financial Services Act of 1998,”
GovTrack.us
, May 13, 1998, at
www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/105–1998/h151
.

37
. Prins,
Other People’s Money,
40.

38
. Memorandum from Eric Heilman to Gene Sperling and Sarah Rosen, Subject: Citicorp/Travelers, Reed/Weill Briefing, September 22, 1998, National Economic Council, Files of Sally Katzen [OA, box no. OD 17444], Folder: Citicorp/Travelers[1], Clinton Library. This folder contains seventeen pages of withdrawals or redactions, including a memo from Rubin to Bowles and Sperling (re: Meeting on Financial Modernization with Citicorp and Travelers Group, Talking Points for meeting with Sandy Weil and John Reed).

39
. Ibid.

40
. Ibid.

41
. Ibid., Memo from Jay Dunn, Business Outreach, Office of Public Liaison, to Gene Sperling, September 22,1998.

42
. Ibid., Memo for Gene Sperling.

43
. Ibid., Memo from Lisa S. Andrews to Secretary Rubin, Subject: Industry positions on HR 10, September 22, 1998.

44
. Ibid.

45
. Ibid., email to Melissa G. Green, Shannon Mason, and Sally Katzen, Subject: FYI re HR 10, September 23, 1998.

46
. Prins,
It Takes a Pillage,
182.

47
. “Senate Banking Shake-Up Could Hinder Reform Bill,”
American Banker,
February 9, 2013.

48
. Duff McDonald, “When a Banking Feud Got Physical,”
CNN Money,
September 18, 2009.

49
. Timothy L. O’Brien and Peter Truell, “Heir Apparent’s Departure May Signal Strain at Citigroup,”
New York Times,
November 3, 1998.