Glass Steagall News

Growing Glass-Steagall Support for HR 1489: Resolution in Essex County, NJ

Jan. 10, 2012 (LPAC)--The Essex County, NJ, Board of Freeholders passed a resolution on December 14, 2011, in support of H.R. 1489 to restore Glass-Steagall. With Newark as the County seat, Essex County is the third-largest county in NJ, with nearly 800,000 residents, just below Middlesex County, which had passed a similar resolution. Thus, two county and four municipal governing bodies representing two million Jerseyans have called for Congressional re-establishment of Glass-Steagall (as has the NJ AFL-CIO).

Essex County includes the districts of Rep. Donald Payne, Rep. Albio Sires, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, and Rep. Bill Pascrell. Payne signed onto 1489 in the course of the months-long campaign to get the Freeholders' resolution. Payne's son is both a Freeholder and President of the Newark City Council, which Council was addressed at least twice by LPAC candidate Diane Sare.

LPAC representatives addressed the Essex Freeholders on at least four occasions.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Rep. Payne and Rep. Frank Pallone both co-sponsored at the point that the scandal around MF Global and Jon Corzine broke open. Former New Jersey Governor and Goldman Sachs CEO Corzine had been the moneybags/controller of the NJ Democratic Party for a decade, and a key Wall St. fundraiser for Obama [EIG/JPS]


Elliot Spitzer Declares for Glass-Steagall in German Interview

Jan. 9, 2011 (EIRNS)--Elliot Spitzer, the former New York State Attorney General and Governor, was interviewed by German financial paper Wirtshaftswoche, on the financial collapse, and his support for the Occupy movement. After a discussion of the Occupy movement, and Obama's complete lack ("No, absolutely not") of meaningful reform, he was asked, "What should we do now?"
Spitzer replied, "Two things above all: We have to solve the housing market problems. I believe that write-downs by the banks are unavoidable. And we must attack the problem known as too-big-to- fail. Because in the end, these mega-financial companies will get us in trouble again. At some point these institutions will make mistakes again, and the taxpayer will have to save them again. In my view it would be better to go back to the system of bank separation, as we had with relative stability in the 50 years prior to the repeal of Glass-Steagall."
This is the first time Spitzer has definitively declared himself on the Glass-Steagall issue, after hovering around it for years.

from
The Bain of Capitalism
January 11, 2012 Robert Reich

Rick Perry criticizes Romney and Bain pushing the quest for profits too far. “There is nothing wrong with being successful and making money,” says Perry. “But getting rich off failure and sticking someone else with the bill is indefensible.”

Yet getting rich off failure and sticking someone else with the bill is what Wall Street financiers try to do every day. It’s called speculation – and at least since the demise of the Glass-Steagall Act, investment bankers have been allowed to gamble with commercial bank deposits, other people’s money.

So is Perry proposing to resurrect Glass-Steagall? Not a chance.