glass-steagall was still in force when travelers and citicorp went ahead with their merger. so what made them think they could get away with it? they had friends in high places. that's how. friends who helped them exploit a loophole giving them two years to get rid of the glass-steagall act. among those friends, the laissez-faire, libertarian chairman of the federal reserve, alan greenspan; the right wing republican senator from texas, phil gramm, who once called wall street "a holy place," and later would become a high priest at the global banking giant, ubs; and the democratic secretary of the treasury, robert rubin, former co-chair of goldman sachs and tireless advocate of taking down glass-steagall. in the weeks before its repeal, rubin left government to join -- are you ready for this -- citigroup's board, the very financial giant made possible by glass-steagall's elimination. and so it was -- the fix was in, the path cleared all the way to the top. >> sandy called his friend the president last night and invited me to join in on the conversation, and we had a good talk.