Please help pass this bill to reinstate Glass-Steagall…
A CALL TO ARMS-
1. BACKGROUND:
Senator Dodd has introduced a bill which was written by Wall Street interests. It is to be his final act before leaving the Senate and taking a lucrative job in the private sector. The bill authorizes future taxpayer bail-outs for speculative financial interests foreign and domestic. Not surprisingly, the Obama White House strongly backs this bill. The global financial interests who engineered his candidacy are the direct beneficiaries. And recently the CEO of Goldman Sachs acknowledged as much to his shareholders.
To their credit, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) have introduced an Amendment to the Dodd bill. Senators Harkin (D-IA) and Feingold (D-WI) are its co-sponsors. It is Senate Amendment 3884. The text can be found here: http://www.larouchepac.com/node/14396
The fundamental purpose of this Amendment is to prevent the kind of bank speculation which led to the financial crisis we find ourselves in today, which has wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs. Not surprisingly, the Obama White House strongly opposes this Amendment for the reason noted above.
2. NECESSITY:
As Senator Cantwell explains: “Behemoth banks are putting their money into risky, get-rich-quick Wall Street schemes instead of investing in Main Street. So much U.S. taxpayer-backed money is going into speculation in dark markets that it has diverted lending capital from our community banks and small businesses that depend on loans to expand and create jobs. This is stifling America and it is why we must re-enact the safeguards that protected Americans for decades after the Great Depression. It’s time to go back to separating commercial banking from Wall Street investment banking.”
As Senator McCain points out:
“I want to ensure that we never stick the American taxpayer with another $700 billion — or even larger — tab to bail out the financial industry,” said Senator John McCain. “If big Wall Street institutions want to take part in risky transactions — fine. But we should not allow them to do so with federally insured deposits. It is time to put a stop to the taxpayer financed excesses of Wall Street. No single financial institution should be so big that its failure would bring ruin to our economy and destroy millions of American jobs. This country would be better served if we limit the activities of these financial institutions.”
As Senator Harkin observes:
“It’s no coincidence that our financial sector got completely out of line once the Glass-Steagall prohibitions were overturned in 1999. By consolidating commercial banking, investment banking and insurance into single financial companies, institutions grew so large and became so interconnected that they were too big to fail,” said Senator Tom Harkin. “It is clear to me that going back to the Glass-Steagall era regulations will help end the problem of too big to fail and will restore order to our financial sector.”
And, as Senator Feingold recalls: “Prior to Glass-Steagall,
devastating financial panics had been a regular feature of our economy, but that changed with the enactment of that momentous legislation, which stabilized our banking system by implementing two key reforms. First, it established an insurance system for deposits, reassuring bank customers that their deposits were safe and, thus, forestalling bank runs. Second, it erected a firewall between securities underwriting and commercial banking so financial firms had to choose which business to be in. That firewall was a crucial part of establishing another protection—deposit insurance—because it prevented banks that accepted FDIC-insured deposits from making these speculative bets with that money.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act:
Tore down that firewall, as well as the firewall that separated insurance from Wall Street banks, and we have seen the disastrous results of that policy. I voted against tearing down the firewall that separated Main Street from the Wall Street banks. I did it for the same reason I voted against the Wall Street bailout: because I listened to the people of Wisconsin who did not want to give Wall Street more and more power.”
3. THE POLITICS:
If you want to understand the forces in play, then you must listen to the interview of my friend Harley Schlanger:
http://www.larouchepac.com/lpactv?nid=14449
As for the politics, two factors are salient:
First:
Obama is on the side of the global financial interests. After all, his mentor is George Soros, who is the world’s largest currency trader, the “Man Who Broke The Bank of England” in 1992, and the one who precipitated the Asian financial crisis in 1998. What is more, his second largest contributor Goldman Sachs. Need I say more?
Second:
If Hillary were involved in politics today, she would support this Amendment. After all, Maria Cantwell was a loyalist, McCain was a friend, and everytime Hillary and Obama locked horns in the campaign on global issues, she came down on the side of the American People and he came down on the side of the global business interests.
(Note: who can forget the time he told the people of Ohio that he would re-examine NAFTA, just as Hillary would, and thereafter he dispatched his agent Goulsbee to tell the Canadians that he was not serious. Also, Hillary favored regulation of international speculators whereas Obama did not.
Finally, Hillary was cautious in her approach to nuclear power based on safety and disposal concerns, whereas Obama was an enthusiastic supporter of nuclear power, as favored by GE who owned Hillary bashing MSNBC, which was sold only after they got their man into the White House.)
4. ACTION STEPS:
Time is of the essence. This critical amendment is being debated now. It will be voted on this weekend. Given what is at stake, it is reasonable to assume that the Democratic sponsors are being threatened by Obama and his cronies. In the past, those threats have been very effective in silencing dissent. Therefore, the pertinent question is what can we we do to support this Amendment.
The answer is very simple:
1. First, recognize the critical importance of what is at stake here, namely our sovereignty, our wealth and our future.
2. Second, asap flood the offices of Senators listed above with phone calls and emails.
a. Senator Cantwell:
http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?lang=&member=wajr&site=congressmerge
b. Senator McCain:
http://www.americanpatrol.com/FEATURES/030529-MCCAIN-OPEN-BORDER/ContactJohnMcCain.html
c. Senator Harkin:
http://harkin.senate.gov/
d. Senator Feingold:
http://feingold.senate.gov/contact.html
3. Third, asap contact your senators. Advise them that their constituents expect them to vote in favor of this Amendment.
4. Fourth, asap transmit this information to PUMAS and other support groups who will read these materials and follow up.
Once again,
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