Changes

==Controveries==

Sperling also served as a principal negotiator with then-Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers in finalizing the Financial Modernization Act of 1999, also known as Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Gramm-Leach-Bliley repealed large portions of the depression-era Glass-Steegal Act allowing banks, securities firms and insurance companies to merge. <ref>National Economic Council [http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/nec/html/sperling.html Profile of Gene Sperling]</ref>

President Barack Obama believes that the repeal of these depression-era protections helped cause the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.<ref>"Ten Questions for Those Fixing the Financial Mess," Wall Street Journal (Mar. 10, 2009), available via http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123665023774979341.html </ref>

Together with United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, Mr. Sperling successfully negotiated and concluded the China-WTO agreement in Beijing in 1999, paving the way for China to enter the World Trade Organization in 2001. <ref>http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/nec/html/sperling.html Profile of Gene Sperling</ref> The Economic Policy Institute estimates that 2.4 million U.S. jobs have been lost to China since 2001.<ref>Unfair China Trade Costs Local Jobs, Economic Policy Institute (Mar. 2010), available via http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/china-job-loss </ref>

According to Bloomberg News, "Sperling earned $887,727 from Goldman Sachs in 2008 and $158,000 for speeches mostly to financial companies, including the firm run by accused Ponzi scheme mastermind R. Allen Stanford." <ref>Robert Schmidt, "Geithner Aides Reaped Millions Working for Banks, Hedge Funds," Bloomberg News (Oct. 14, 2009), available via http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=abo3Zo0ifzJg </ref> His prior income for the period between 2001 and 2007 is not publicly available.

No comparable public reporting was required during the preceding several years he spent in the private sector following his work for the Clinton Administration.

Sperling served as National Economic Advisor and Director of the [[National Economic Council]] under President [[William Jefferson Clinton], from 1995 to 2000, after serving as the Deputy Director earlier in the administration. <ref>See, e.g., http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/nec/html/sperling.html</ref>