Are Republicans about to reinstate Glass-Steagall?
A return to Glass-Steagall? Preposterous, right? Not a chance. Wall Street would never allow it.
And yet this happened yesterday.
In a private meeting with lawmakers, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said he supports a policy that could radically reshape Wall Street’s biggest firms by separating their consumer-lending businesses from their investment banks, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Cohn, the ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive who is now advising President Donald Trump, said he generally favors banking going back to how it was when firms like Goldman focused on trading and underwriting securities, and companies such as Citigroup Inc. primarily issued loans, according to the people, who heard his comments.
What Cohn is describing in a nutshell is Glass-Steagall.
But it's just one guy. An important guy, but just one guy, right?
Actually, no.
Dismantling the nation’s banking giants isn’t a partisan issue, which is one reason why Wall Street fears the idea could gain traction. Both political parties -- and many voters -- still resent that taxpayers had to rescue the industry with a $700 billion bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.
"We support reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibits commercial banks from engaging in high-risk investment."
- 2016 Republican Party platform
Trump continues to support a return to Glass-Steagall, although he hasn't done anything about it yet.
More crucial is that Glass-Steagall has an ally in the Federal Reserve.
A top US regulator has endorsed Donald Trump’s tentative plans to reinstate barriers between investment banking and consumer banking, arguing the divisions are vital to ensure that shareholders, and not the taxpayer, foot the bill for “inevitable” collapses...
Mr Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said during his confirmation hearing that he, too, backed a “21st century version” of Glass-Steagall, alluding to the Depression-era law that separated commercial from investment banking.
In a speech on Monday, Thomas Hoenig, vice-chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, threw his weight behind the idea of separation, saying that universal banks should set up standalone holding companies if they wanted to carry out “non-traditional bank activities”.
With both Cohn and Mnuchin supporting a return to Glass-Steagall, there is no real opposition to it in the White House.
As for Hoenig, he not only supports a return to Glass-Steagall, he also made public a regulatory roadmap of how to do it.
Of course the real opposition to Glass-Steagall is in Congress. But even in Congress there is hope.
On February 1, 2017, Representatives Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Walter Jones (R-NC), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), and Tim Ryan (D-OH) introduced the "Return to Prudent Banking Act," H.R. 790, calling for the reinstatement of FDR's original Glass-Steagall Act, separating commercial banking activities from investment banking. The bill was introduced with 26 co-sponsors.
There's Gabbard again, the person that Hillary supporters hate so much. She's working alongside Republicans, trying to reinstate Glass-Steagall, something Hillary herself said shouldn't be done.
Wouldn't it be ironic if Democrats officially become the Party of Wall Street?
Comments
Here's hoping!
Something about this doesn't pass the smell test
I imagine the devil is in the details, but my guess is that this
somehow favors GS greatly while the other big IB'S get it up the
arse.
If the D's stand against it, I would say that's curtains for them
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
I have the same thought
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Funny I had the same thought
JPM is a hybrid like Citi so is this GS being squid like and devouring
whats left? A real NYC bar brawl.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
That would be yuge.....
If only Trump and the "moderate" GOP would end run the Teabaggers and the Dems on the left. They would be in office for 50 years.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Wall Street thinks it's a bluff
No fear
As we well know, "party platforms" are a joke. And moreover,
DrumpleThinSkin being on the record for anything, by virtue of what he's said, is like trying to get the truth out of a drug addict. They'll both tell you anything you want to hear.
The way I see that hideous, narcissistic scumbag's entire campaign run for presidency, besides being the clearest reflection of the worst this country has to offer, is he just completely plagiarized Bernie's issues/platforms out of sheer expediency.
He looked over at Bernie, thinking, "wow, that old Socialist Jew from Vermont is really packing them in. What's he saying that's got all these people showing up for him? I gotta use some of that." He's never meant a word he's said Glass-Stegall. Or anything else. He's got no moral core and is a complete sociopath. First thing's first always for that asshole. It's always about him. And then afterward, it's all about the slimy people who he can get on the hook with a quid pro quo "deal." He's opportunism and a "businessman" to the worst degree.
And anytime we discuss things like this I suggest we refer to this photo,
and this George Carlin piece about these pricks:
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Maybe its true and the reason is that
Trump couldn't get a loan from them and this is his petty revenge streak in action.
If so at least his pettiness would serve the people for once.
Here's hoping!
When I was a kid, Republicans used to red scare people, now it's the Democrats. I am getting too damn old for this crap!
Bull in a china shoppe
He's in for him, the rest of us are incidental winners or roadkill.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
...Wouldn't it be ironic if
I kinda thought they already were...
Maybe Trump could use them along that Mexican border wall, as scarecrows to discourage random post-NAFTA desperate job-seekers from crossing into America? A kind of grim warning that all is not right on the other side either?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.