The claim that politicians' deregulatory decisions contributed to the 2007–2008 financial crisis has mixed but credible support across the two cited examples. **Glass-Steagall repeal (US, 1999):** Evidence is contested. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz argued the repeal was a major factor by merging investment and commercial banking cultures and encouraging high-risk leverage. However, PolitiFact rated Bill Clinton's claim that the repeal had "nothing to do" with the crisis as "Mostly True," noting difficulty drawing a direct causal line. Former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder noted he had never heard a good answer as to what specific bad practices the old Glass-Steagall would have prevented. The Congressional Research Service noted that "some have argued that the partial repeal either was a cause of the financial crisis... or that it fueled and worsened the crisis's deleterious effect," while others "argue that Glass-Steagall issues were not significant causes." Critically, several of the worst-failing institutions — Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG — were not commercial banks holding insured deposits, meaning the repeal did not directly enable their failures. The repeal was at best one contributing factor among many. **FSA reorganization (UK, 1997):** Evidence is stronger. The UK Treasury Select Committee's report "The Run on the Rock" (2008) found that "the Financial Services Authority systematically failed in its regulatory duty to ensure that Northern Rock would not pose a systemic risk" and identified "a significant failure of the Tripartite arrangements." The FSA's own 2011 report on the failure of RBS acknowledged "flaws in the FSA's supervisory approach provided insufficient challenge to RBS." Bank of England Governor Mervyn King publicly apologized, saying the Bank "should have shouted from the rooftops." The FSA was subsequently abolished, with powers returned to the Bank of England — an implicit recognition of systemic failure. Chancellor George Osborne explicitly called the tripartite system "a key factor in the problems faced by the UK during the buildup to the financial crash." **Overall:** The claim oversimplifies a multi-causal crisis, but the core assertion — that politicians' regulatory choices enabled bankers' reckless behavior — has credible official and expert support, particularly for the UK case. The Glass-Steagall case is more contested but remains a plausible contributing factor. Sources: - NPR, "Fact Check: Did Glass-Steagall Cause The 2008 Financial Crisis?" https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/14/448685233/fact-check-did-glass-steagall-cause-the-2008-financial-crisis - PolitiFact, "Bill Clinton: Glass-Steagall repeal had nothing to do with financial crisis" https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/aug/19/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-glass-steagall-had-nothing-do-financi/ - Congressional Research Service, "The Glass-Steagall Act: A Legal and Policy Analysis" https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R44349/R44349.3.pdf - UK Parliament Treasury Committee, "The Run on the Rock" https://www.nrsag.co.uk/ws/media-library/d26b55fe237e49e8be387d2c77e90d4c/the-run-on-the-rock---treasury-committee-report.pdf - FSA Board Report, "The failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland" https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/fsa-rbs.pdf - HM Treasury, "Reforming financial markets Cm 7667" https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c6b6840f0b626628abed4/7667.pdf - HM Treasury, "Review of HM Treasury's management response to the financial crisis" https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220506/review_fincrisis_response_290312.pdf - Wikipedia, "Chancellorship of Gordon Brown" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellorship_of_Gordon_Brown - The Conversation, "Bank of England Governor: Sorry about the financial crisis" https://theconversation.com/bank-of-england-governor-sorry-about-the-financial-crisis-6835