The 2008 financial crisis might not have happened at all but for the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall law that separated commercial and investment banking for seven decades.   Bill Clinton maintains this repeal was not linked to the meltdown but every hedge fund manager of note has said the opposite.  The US congress passed the  Dodd-Frank act as a replacement for glass steagall, although D-F is not as stringent as G-S