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In [ ], the laws that governed America’s financial service sector were antiquated and anti-competitive. The [ ]Administration fought to modernize those laws to increase competition in traditional banking, insurance, and securities industries to give consumers and small businesses more choices and lower costs. In [ ], the [ ] Administration broke another decades-old logjam by allowing banks to branch across state lines in the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of [ ]. President [ ] fought for and won financial modernization legislation, signing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in November [ ].

Of course, all this redacting is a set-up as you can probably figure out which Presidential administration was at the fore of this flurry of deregulation rather than the one who is being blamed for it.

We found another gem in a document issued by the Clinton Administration touting their domestic/economic accomplishments:

Strengthened the Community Reinvestment Act. In 1995, the Administration updated the Community Reinvestment Act regulations to focus on banks’ actual service delivery, rather than on compliance efforts. From 1993 to 1998, lenders subject to the law increased mortgage lending to low- and moderate-income families by 80 percent—more than twice the rate they increased mortgage lending to other income groups.

(emphasis ours)

This all represents a bit of a conflict for the President-elect as it will be Clinton’s deregulation efforts he will be overturning and not Bush’s (much non-existent) deregulation efforts and which Obama had attacked during the campaign.

And the situation becomes even more interesting when it looks like for all the talk of Bush’s 3rd term or Carter’s 2nd term, Obama’s cabinet selections (Clinton’s own TreasSec, Larry Summers for Obama’s, anyone?) are making this look like Clinton III.

Stay tuned.

H/T: Reason.com