PHIL GRAMM

Between 1995 and 2000, Gramm was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. During that time he spearheaded efforts to pass banking deregulation laws, including the landmark Gramm-Leach-Biley Act of 1999, which removed Depression-era law as separating banking, insurance and brokerage activities.
The Glass-Stegall Act was part of the Banking Act of 1933 isolated banking from securities. This was designed to (1) maintain the integrity of the banking system; (2) prevent self-dealing and other financial abuses; and (3) limit stock market speculation.

After Gramm passed a law easing regulation of energy-commodity trading, California experienced a sharp run-up in energy costs. The energy-trading company Enron was blamed and soon collapsed.(2)

(2)http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24844889/

Worse, in 2000, Gramm slipped a thick, 262-page measure (the Commodity Futures Modernization Act: more on that below) into a $384 billion spending bill. The act, said Gramm, would prevent the SEC — especially the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — from getting into the business of regulating financial products called "swaps." Swaps, of course, were at the heart of the subprime debacle.

"Tens of trillions of dollars of transactions were done in the dark," reports University of San Diego law professor Frank Partnoy, an expert on financial markets and derivatives. "No one had a picture of where the risks were flowing... {subsequently} there was more betting on the riskiest subprime mortgages than there were actual mortgages."
Source: MotherJones.com