Most of us have been calling for a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall as part of financial reform for some time, supposedly the calls falling on deaf ears.
Now the House of Representatives is discussing Glass-Steagall.
Glass-Steagall is the 1933 legislation which put a firewall between commercial and investment banking. It was repealed by the notorious Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and has been pinpointed as a major source of economic woe ever since including this recent financial crisis.
Please call your House Representatives and ask them to reinstate Glass-Steagall. To find your Representative, click here. Please call or fax them to demand Glass-Steagall be reinstated.
You know financial lobbyists will fight tooth and nail on this one, so the public will needs to be very loud and clear to try to overcome the lobbyists' control of Congress. Call, Fax, call again!
Wow!
McCain and Cantwell want a New Glass Steagall That's not a TYPO - it says McCain.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
This would be REAL reform
But I just don't see it happening.
''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010. I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.''
- Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, 1999
''The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown.''
- Senator Bob Kerrey, Democrat of Nebraska, 1999
Submit to Reddit, etc., rate it up
See that "share" button? Submit this post to reddit and other sites, rate it up to spread this action item. Cross post it in comments on other sites we know are analyzing reforms and also know reinstatement of Glass-Steagall is a critical one.
Yeah, I was shocked to read this but let's jump on it and give it the good ole college try. If the public is aware just what Glass-Steagall is and demands it is reinstated, we might just get somewhere.
Also note Rebel's quote. Yes, Mr. "Phil Gramm" McCain is also calling to reinstate Glass Steagall, along with Maria "I'm Bill Gates' personal representative" Cantwell.
So, if you can get these two glorified lobbyist puppets on board (maybe they are having a tinge of guilt?) we might stand a chance.
Dodd is supposedly dead Senator walking btw (in terms of his prayer's chance of getting re-elected) (ah Connecticut, are they getting a clue yet?) and he's running the Senate financial reforms via the banking committee.
Sorry, Mr. Oak, but you are wrong on this!
Sorry, but the best reason why this is just so much blowing smoke is the Dorgan Amendment today -- to safely re-import prescription drugs from Canada, Europe and abroad (in order to lower the case for everyone and do an end-run around Medicare Part D for seniors) -- was voted down, including the NAY votes from Senators Cantwell and Murray!
The second and most important reason is that we no longer have an economy, the actual percentage of the economy made up of the financial engineering bubble has risen to 60% or above, clearly making the likelihood of any reinstatement of Glass-Steagall an impossibility -- because to do so at this time would crash what little actually remains of the American economy!
It might have helped to reinstate it...possibly 5 years ago...but things have gone to sour now and it is far too late.
LOL
come on, Citigroup is adding to the economy? That's the kind of institutions it would affect and it's not a big deal, they simply break up into different institutions. Happens every day with mergers, acquisitions and spin offs.
Are you claiming that the recent spin off of AOL or Skype will crash the economy? It's very similar.
It doesn't mean investment houses are limited at all.
On Cantwell, you won't see me defending her to save my soul. At every turn she has done Bill Gates "global migration" i.e. enable our offshore outsourcing, labor arbitrage, age discrimination against our employees agenda....
So, I'm not surprised in the least on that vote.
But you'd have to show me an unbiased study (not produced by the banking industry) to show why Glass-Steagall is magically such a threat for the results of such a reinstatement just reverse many of the mega mergers of the 2000's.
Please reinstate Glass-Steagall
"Maria "I'm Bill Gates' personal representative" Cantwell"
LOL! So true. Did Cantwell check with Bill Gates on Glass-Steagall?
"Dodd is supposedly dead Senator walking btw (in terms of his prayer's chance of getting re-elected) (ah Connecticut, are they getting a clue yet?)"
What's with these Connecticut Senators protecting entrenched banking/insurance interests? The other, Liebermann, is killing health care reform. I guess the state is too close to Wall St and imagine many who work on Wall St. live in Connecticut.
Too much smoke for me
I'm afraid I'm with ANON above. When Cantwell "supports" something it is the sure kiss of death (in other words, strictly grandstanding eye candy --- nothing but show).
Remember her last minute "support" for that public option?
The tipoff is Steny Hoyer suddenly voicing support in the House. Sorry, there's no way Hoyer is throwing his financial services' masters under the bus.
This is simply yet another diversionary tactic to scare up donations and throw business to the telecoms.
Sorry, but their track records (and voting records) precedes them --- and anything McCain is always suspect!