"Come on People!" Glass-Steagall Worked!

[GlassSteagallfan]

"Come on People!" Glass-Steagall Worked!

May 22, 2012 • 7:00AM

Monday morning's Forbes features yet another call for Glass-Steagall, this one by "contributor" Sy Harding. "Bringing Back Glass-Steagall Would Rebuild Shattered Confidence In Wall Street" reviews G-S history from 1930s, as a response to excess greed by banksters. Fast-forward to 2008, the cause of the collapse is the same, the calls for Glass-Steagall are from the same impulse, but banks beat this impulse down, leaving us with Dodd Frank, and are delaying even that. JPMorgan was the wake-up call, says Harding, but "Congress and regulators have been oddly quiet in reaction, since the news potentially throws a monkey wrench into their plans to scuttle even the Dodd-Frank financial regulations after the elections."

Taking this head on, Harding says, "Come on people! Wall Street has been ranting for three years about the excess regulations that were being proposed. The truth is that even the harshest of the proposals would be far short of the regulations that were in effect, and working very well, right up to the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall. Give the country a break. It can't handle another financial meltdown. In 1929, again in 2000, and yet again in 2008, we've seen how those meltdowns are inevitable if the financial industry is left to its own devices."

In addition, two editorials from last Friday have been re-posted from very distant places Monday morning. The editorial from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "What was wrong with the Glass Steagall Act?" saying "Here's a campaign slogan: Bring back Glass-Steagall!..." was posted by the Star Democrat, serving "mid-shore" Maryland, and a Philadelphia News Daily (McClatchy) editorial was posted by the Bellville (SW Illinois) News-Daily.

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May 22, 2012

The Friday, May 11th admission by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon of a $2 billion + loss in derivatives has fueled a furious escalation of discussion around the need for the reinstatement of Glass Steagall. LaRouchePAC continues to lead the fight for the need for Glass Steagall and the necessary followup of a policy of a credit system in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton. For an in-depth examination of what the significance of the JPMorgan loss is- that it is not a simple gambling loss of one isolated bank, but is a signal of the bankruptcy of the entire system, read the latest article by EIR economics editor, John Hoefle, JP Morgan Fiasco Shows Need for Glass-Steagall.

FLASH: A second township in Greene County PA has passed the NAWAPA resolution. The Gilmore Township Board of Supervisors at their meeting last night (Monday night) joined Morgan Township in endorsing the NAWAPA Plan, including Glass Steagall.
Greene County produces more than half the coal in Pennsylvania, and is the second-largest coal-producing county in the United States, including the #1 and #2 largest-producing underground coal mines in the U.S.A.

In the flurry of renewed interest in Glass Steagall in the middle of this situation, three new cosponsors have signed onto Marcy Kaptur's H.R. 1489, Dale Kildee, (D-MI), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), and Karen Bass (D-CA).

Among the most recent significant additions of support behind Glass Steagall is the May 4, 2012 endorsement by the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) local 302 of LPAC's Emergency Resolution on Glass-Steagall, national banking, and NAWAPA.


Note: While reading more about the JPMorgan crisis, some articles have estimates above 10 billion in losses and all agree that the estimate will keep going up.

[doodah]

Yes, it did work. I remember when it worked. I remember when there were usury laws, when interest rates could not exceed 18%. I remember when there were anti-trust, anti-monopoly laws. I remember when no one company could own more than 5 radio-newspaper-tv stations, combined total. (At present, if I recall correctly, 5 COMPANIES own ALL the media outlets. Whatever happened to anti-monopoly?) I remember when there really were investigative news reporters. I remember when government contracts HAD to be competitively bid and could not just be awarded out of hand to a company. I remember when all this worked!

But you can thank Ronald Reagan, our movie star president, for removing the stops. Deregulation began with him. I guess that's why people love him so much. The restraints were removed and the Monster of Greed was given free run across the land. Everyone making tons of money thought that was just the greatest idea since sliced bread. No responsibiity - a wonderful concept. And then the downward-turning spiral gathered speed: "Hey, if he's getting filthy rich, why shouldn't I? There aren't any restrictions anymore!"

It would be a fine day if our run-amok greed were brought back under control.

And while we're talking about present excesses, don't any of the younger generations learn any history at all? I keep running into young people who don't seem to be able to think about what our loss of liberties, even the loss of our Constitution, will mean -- is beginning to mean.

Doesn't anyone remember Soviet Russia - not because it was Communist, but because it was a Police State, because people were afraid of their own government all the time? Or the gulag - does anyone today know what that was and why it existed?

It's like everyone is just walking straight into this political horror movie as if they're being paid to read their lines. Strip searched at the airport? Sure, why not? Your phone is bugged? Sure, why not? You're treated like a criminal when you aren't one. Sure, why not, who cares? They can take you out of your house if they want to without explaining anything to you and put you in jail for the rest of your life without even letting you make a phone call? Sure, why not??????? What's wrong with everyone? Especially, need I point out, our Congress, who voted this stuff into being. And WHY won't those people be voted out?

[scarletfire]

I often wonder how much evidence has to be shoved down the throat of those folks who continue to argue these facts, vote outside their best interest and essentially drink the kool-aid. The evidence is overwhelming! Is a going to take a 1929 type catastrophe that puts working folks in the soup lines to demand change. Many have already fallen in that category. If Forbes is demanding Glass-Stegall type reform, irrefutable MSM is warning of the need to reform policy. Americans seem to have historical amnesia regarding the seriousness of economic instability, and how this creation of instability can be used as means of control. There is an excellent book and documentary by Naomi Klein that spells out how those in power have used economic instability as means to control and disempower a population. I have included the link which is well worth the time, Its called The Shock Doctrine.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7iW1SHPgUAQ

[sdv]

Yes, it did work. I remember when it worked. I remember when there were usury laws, when interest rates could not exceed 18%. I remember when there were anti-trust, anti-monopoly laws. I remember when no one company could own more than 5 radio-newspaper-tv stations, combined total. (At present, if I recall correctly, 5 COMPANIES own ALL the media outlets. Whatever happened to anti-monopoly?) I remember when there really were investigative news reporters. I remember when government contracts HAD to be competitively bid and could not just be awarded out of hand to a company. I remember when all this worked!

But you can thank Ronald Reagan, our movie star president, for removing the stops. Deregulation began with him. I guess that's why people love him so much. The restraints were removed and the Monster of Greed was given free run across the land. Everyone making tons of money thought that was just the greatest idea since sliced bread. No responsibiity - a wonderful concept. And then the downward-turning spiral gathered speed: "Hey, if he's getting filthy rich, why shouldn't I? There aren't any restrictions anymore!"

It would be a fine day if our run-amok greed were brought back under control.

And while we're talking about present excesses, don't any of the younger generations learn any history at all? I keep running into young people who don't seem to be able to think about what our loss of liberties, even the loss of our Constitution, will mean -- is beginning to mean.

Doesn't anyone remember Soviet Russia - not because it was Communist, but because it was a Police State, because people were afraid of their own government all the time? Or the gulag - does anyone today know what that was and why it existed?

It's like everyone is just walking straight into this political horror movie as if they're being paid to read their lines. Strip searched at the airport? Sure, why not? Your phone is bugged? Sure, why not? You're treated like a criminal when you aren't one. Sure, why not, who cares? They can take you out of your house if they want to without explaining anything to you and put you in jail for the rest of your life without even letting you make a phone call? Sure, why not??????? What's wrong with everyone? Especially, need I point out, our Congress, who voted this stuff into being. And WHY won't those people be voted out?

Well done!

The USA turning into a fascist state did not happen overnight. But everyone turned away and said it was ok and wanted the good life. Presidents and all those in government, elected or not, are just as human as you are. Stop crying because they have turned out not to be the superheroes that you wanted, and stop blaming them for this. But learn the lesson - we need balances and checks and controls otherwise we are going to find ourselves up the creek without a paddle. And human nature means that will always be a president or government that will try to go round or remove those balances and checks and controls, so you have to be vigilant.

Face it - Americans wanted what Reagan offered because you all wanted the good life. Americans believed all the propaganda fed to them, even though you have people like Noam Chomsky telling you the truth. Americans didn't care about the suffering they caused to others in the world as long as they had the good life (do you know that only ONE American stayed in Rwanda because he believed that if he could save the life of just one person it would be worth risking his life for that?). Now you are seeing the price you paid by being silent.

And yes your Constitution has been shredded, but how much did you care about it when you stood back and allowed executions, allowed gay people to be denied their rights, and so on? (In the country in which I live the Constitution and Bill of Rights is being dismantled by the ruling party, but I realise that although they were hailed as the best in the world when we adopted them, these documents were basically flawed by compromises, and it is these very compromises that have been used to destroy what the Constitution and Bill of Rights intended to achieve. I was one of the majority who voted to accept these flawed foundations for this country.)

Take heart because although the facism did not happen overnight, history shows us that fascists states can be overthrown overnight. Civil war in the USA is the last thing anyone wants, but there are many brave people and organisations speaking up and trying to change the direction of that country. Find them, support them and don't believe that you are helpless. You did very little to stop this descent into fascism, and you are only speaking out now that your cushy lives are being threatened, but there is a lot more forgiveness in the world then you give credit for. And, freedom and rights cannot be compromised by stating who is worthy of them (us) and who is not (them) because once that rule is in place, before you know it you find yourself part of 'them'!

[doodah]

SDV, that's a pretty good analysis of what's happened here, and I do very much appreciate the words of hope you've put in there, too.

But I do want to say that a lot of what goes on politicially and in the secret backrooms only becomes evident when all of a sudden "we" hear in a news sound-byte that some new thing that nobody knew about has been passed into law by our own representatives. I can't tell you how many times I've found myself saying "What? How can they do that? Are they crazy?" And it's done already. Sure, I write my representatives and insist that they UNDO this thing and on the whole I get non-responsive answers back. Those aware enough among the people then have to mobilize and put up a HUGE campaign to get it UNDONE, just the way people are trying to undo the NDAA. Nobody asked us if we wanted that, you know, but even if asked, the general population is still probably not capable of thinking it through. It's a sign of how badly wrong things have gone that we have to fight so hard for the simplest good things -- like, let's cut about 50% of the military budget and put that money to use rebuilding bridges. But no, the military budget gets bigger each year; over 50% of our taxes are used for death and destruction. It would take a mass uprising of the people to stop that. Our representatives are not going to change it, and, again, WHY won't they be voted out of office?

We could get into the whole discussion about the dumbing down of the American people - fluoride in the water, a poor education system, television mass hypnosis, EMF bombardment, GM foods - all the ways Americans have been made so stupid. The general population has been deluded, by design.

The cushy life, which has been a lie all along, has been the cover story for the NWO takeover. As long as the slaves are busy working to earn minimum wage and have gadgets and popularity contests amongst ourselves, we're busy and don't get in the way (keep the children distracted). It has worked. No doubt about it. It's worked to the point that we've almost killed the whole planet. The whole process is clearly insane (to me) and what the elites intend to do with a poisoned planet is beyond me. The more I look at it, the more it looks to me like this whole place is being "terraformed" for a lifeform which is different than us. Too much of Earth is dying now through manmade causes that could have been stopped long ago but weren't ... I'm assuming, by design.

Although a percentage of people have protested all along, the voices have been like a whisper in a howling wind, drowned out. The general population is fat, stupid, deluded and probably can't even comprehend what Glass-Steagall is all about. I do, however, take your words of hope into my heart! I'd like to see the people of this planet get out of this particular ballpark entirely, this Timeline 2 World-Destroying ballpark, by SHIFTING the planet's reality hologram onto Timeline 1, where we dismantle ALL our means of destruction and become not human, but humane. Current politics aside, yes, I do believe such a thing is possible.