Bring Back Glass-Steagall With Bipartisan Support

Sen. Warren Submits Bill To Bring Back Glass-Steagall With Bipartisan Support

posted by Justin Acuff 

 July 11, 2013 

 Current Events, Economy, Most Popular, Politics

Given her stellar record of fighting on behalf of the middle-class, it’s not surprising that Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wasn’t kidding when she said she’d go after Wall Street. Today, she’s introducing a bill to bring back Glass-Steagall — the 1933 law separating commercial banking from investment banking. Glass-Steagall was repealed back in 1999, at the behest and under the influence of Wall Street. The repeal is rightfully blamed, in large part, for the banking crisis that resulted in the 2008 recession.

This new bill, appropriately titled The 21st Century Glass-Steagall, is cosponsored by three other Senators, including an Independent and a Republican. They are by  Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), John McCain (R-AZ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Angus King (I-ME), is described in a press release on Warren’s website:

The legislation introduced today would separate traditional banks that have savings and checking accounts and are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from riskier financial institutions that offer services such as investment banking, insurance, swaps dealing, and hedge fund and private equity activities. This bill would clarify regulatory interpretations of banking law provisions that undermined the protections under the original Glass-Steagall and would make “Too Big to Fail” institutions smaller and safer, minimizing the likelihood of a government bailout.
“Since core provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed in 1999, shattering the wall dividing commercial banks and investment banks, a culture of dangerous greed and excessive risk-taking has taken root in the banking world,” said Senator John McCain. “Big Wall Street institutions should be free to engage in transactions with significant risk, but not with federally insured deposits. If enacted, the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act would not end Too-Big-to-Fail.  But, it would rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking that was in place for over 60 years, restore confidence in the system, and reduce risk for the American taxpayer.”
“Despite the progress we’ve made since 2008, the biggest banks continue to threaten the economy,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren.  ”The four biggest banks are now 30% larger than they were just five years ago, and they have continued to engage in dangerous, high-risk practices that could once again put our economy at risk.  The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will reestablish a wall between commercial and investment banking, make our financial system more stable and secure, and protect American families.”
“Too many Main Streets across America have paid the price for risky gambling on Wall Street,” Senator Maria Cantwell said. “This bill would restore clear bright lines that separate risky activities from the traditional banking system. It’s time to restore faith in our financial institutions by rebuilding the firewall that protected our economy for decades in the wake of the Great Depression. Restoring Glass-Steagall would focus our financial system where it belongs: getting capital into the hands of job creators and businesses on Main Streets across America.”
“As Maine families continue to feel the sting of the 2008 economic downturn, America’s largest financial institutions continue to engage in risky banking and investment activities that threaten the health of our financial sector and our economy as a whole. While recent efforts at financial sector regulatory reform attempt to address the ‘too big to fail’ phenomenon, Congress must take additional steps to see that American taxpayers aren’t again faced with having to bail out big Wall Street institutions while Main Street suffers,” Senator Angus King said. “While the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act is not the silver bullet to end ‘too big to fail,’ the legislation’s re-establishment of clear separations between retail and investment banking, as well as its restrictions on banking activities, will limit government guarantees to insured depository institutions and provide strong protections against the spillover effects should a financial institution fail.”
The original Glass-Steagall legislation was introduced in response to the financial crash of 1929 and separated depository banks from investment banks. The idea was to divide the risky activities of investment banks from the core depository functions that consumers rely upon every day.  Starting in the 1980s, regulators at the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reinterpreted longstanding legal terms in ways that slowly broke down the wall between investment and depository banking and weakened Glass-Steagall. In 1999, after 12 attempts at repeal, Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to repeal the core provisions of Glass-Steagall.

After the financial crisis, “too big” became bigger as failed banks were absorbed by bigger banks. This has resulted in a financial industry that is literally too big to regulate — we don’t have the manpower, legislation or resources in place to properly oversight massive financial institutions. “Too big to fail” simply means these corporations are allowed to privatize their profits, and when they’re going to sink, they get bailed out by the people through government, socializing losses.

During the buildup to the financial crisis, America’s biggest banks took advantage of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act and other reckless deregulation of the Bush administration to put in place an incentive system that led to poor, and mostly minority, homebuyers being loan sharked by predatory mortgage companies, appraisal companies, rating agencies, and, eventually, America’s biggest banks. These banks packaged up all of these toxic subprime mortgage loans, cut them up into securitized trading investments, sold them to unsuspecting buyers both at home and abroad, placed bets against the very same financial products they were selling, and then had the audacity to demand a taxpayer bailout for themselves and for AIG (who got the biggest portion of the bailout!), the company through which they placed their corrupt bets! The worst part is, a non-strings attached taxpayer bailout is precisely what they got.

Too Big Has Failed also provided an awesome PDF fact sheet, which you can click here to view.

Here’s a graph showing the damage the repeal of Glass-Steagall has done, courtesy of Too Big Has Failed:



Business Insider reports,

The legislation introduced today would separate traditional banks that have savings and checking accounts and are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from riskier financial institutions that offer services such as investment banking, insurance, swaps dealing, and hedge fund and private equity activities. This bill would clarify regulatory interpretations of banking law provisions that undermined the protections under the original Glass-Steagall and would make “Too Big to Fail” institutions smaller and safer, minimizing the likelihood of a government bailout.
“Since core provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed in 1999, shattering the wall dividing commercial banks and investment banks, a culture of dangerous greed and excessive risk-taking has taken root in the banking world,” said Senator John McCain. “Big Wall Street institutions should be free to engage in transactions with significant risk, but not with federally insured deposits. If enacted, the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act would not end Too-Big-to-Fail.  But, it would rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking that was in place for over 60 years, restore confidence in the system, and reduce risk for the American taxpayer.”

With this and Harry Reid’s promise of filibuster reform, hopefully our government can begin to make real, useful changes on the issues hurting Americans today.

Watch this video from Too Big Has Failed on why we need to break up big banks:

About Author

Justin Acuff

Justin Acuff is a political activist, writer and admitted news junkie. He has written hundreds of articles that have been read millions of times. Justin is a Senior Editor for Addicting Info, the owner and managing editor of Young Progressive Voices, and contributes to other publications as well. The best part? He isn't even 20 yet. Follow his Facebook fan page to get access to his latest articles, find his website here, or follow him on Twitter.