Investment banks went public in the 1980s, allowing them to capture huge amounts of shareholder money. In the late 1990s, financial sectors merged into large corporations. Mergers could cause economic collapse. In 1998 Citicorp and Travelers merged, forming Citigroup. Stock analysis has assigned high ratings to companies destined to fail. This led to a case involving 10 investment banks: Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Derivatives were created in the 1990s. Markets became increasingly unstable, while banks claimed the opposite. In 2001, a securitization food chain was created. Lenders sold CDOs to investment banks, which led investors to purchase CDOs from investment banks. This was popular among pension funds because most CDOs received AAA ratings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Borrowers were given subprime loans; the probability of paying them back was low, due to high interest rates. In a 10-year span, subprime lending increased from $30 billion to $600 billion per year in financing. AIG has started selling Credit Default Swaps. If Credit Default Swaps failed, AIG would go bankrupt. Goldman Sachs has been betting against CDOs, while encouraging clients to buy them. After Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came under government control, Lehman Brothers' stock plummeted. In September 2008, Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch. However, AIG owed $13 billion to Credit Default Swap holders; They had no money to pay them. The bubble burst and chaos erupted. Banks began buying each other out, such as Bank of America acquiring Countywide. Yet after this crisis lobbyists fought harder than ever to prevent reform, which is still happening today. Ronald Reagan began the 30-year period of government deregulation by appointing Donald Regan, who was CEO of Merrill Lynch at the time, as Secretary of the Treasury. In 1982, the Reagan administration deregulated savings and loan companies, allowing them to make risky investments with depositors' money. In the late 1980s, many savings and loan companies went bankrupt, leaving people high and dry. Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan to head the Federal Reserve, even after Greenspan had received a bribe from Keating to approve his "robust business plans". Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also reappointed Greenspan. The continuation of deregulation continued under the Clinton administration. The Clinton administration helped companies, such as Citigroup, grow without consequences from violating the Glass-Steagall Act. In 1999, Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which overturned the Glass-Steagall Act. The Securities and Exchange Commission allowed investors to lose $5 trillion due to lack of preparation. The CFTC proposed a bill to regulate derivatives, but the Clinton administration denied regulation. Because of Greenspan's ideology, he refused to use the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act. Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Summers, and Tim Geithner all received Raghuram G. Rajan's paper, Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?, with a conclusion of yes, but Summers accused Rajan of being a Luddite. Henry Paulson was nominated.