Glass-Steagall Reintroduced in Congress

April 13, 2011 (EIRNS)—Three Members of Congress—Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), and James Moran (D-Va.)—today took the lead and re-introduced into the U.S. Congress the most important piece of legislation possible—a reimposition of the Glass-Steagall principles enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

H.R. 1489's official summary reads: "To repeal certain provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and revive the separation between commercial banking and the securities business, in the manner provided in the Banking Act of 1933, the so-called 'Glass-Steagall Act,' and for other purposes." Its short title is "Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011." Section 2 of the bill is headlined "Glass-Steagall Revived," and reads "...wall between commercial banks and securities activities re-established."

This long-overdue action sets the stage for a dramatic escalation of the battle to restore Glass-Steagall, which has been led by Lyndon LaRouche and Lyndon LaRouche PAC over the last three years. On the eve of the reintroduction, LaRouche said that if we can ram the bill through, "this will rout the enemy! Even threatening to do it, will put the enemy off balance. If we don't do it, we're finished."

The 'enemy,' of course, is the British imperial financial system, which successfully threatened the Obama Administration in May 2010, to prevent a pending vote on restoring Glass-Steagall at that time. The British see the reimposition of Glass-Steagall, which will effectively wipe trillions of dollars of gambling debts off the account of the Federal government, as a death blow to their system—and, LaRouche argues, it will be. But that will be no loss. The U.S. population doesn't need Wall Street—nor should it continue to suffer under an insane President who serves Wall Street, Barack Obama.