bobbyw24
12-16-2009, 03:26 PM
Two Bills in Congress Would Restore Glass-Steagall
Financial giants such as Goldman Sachs could be broken up under two bills introduced in the U.S. Congress Wednesday, one with the backing of former Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Both would reinstate the 1930s-era Glass-Steagall laws that barred large banks from affiliating with securities firms and being active in the insurance business. Those limits were largely repealed in 1999, a high-water mark for deregulation.
"It is time to put a stop to the taxpayer financed excesses of Wall Street ... This country would be better served if we limit the activities of these financial institutions," McCain said in a statement with Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell.
Passage of the Cantwell-McCain bill would force firms at the center of last year's financial crisis—such as Goldman , Morgan Stanley , Citigroup , JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo —to spin off investment and insurance operations, said Democrats, a progressive think tank in New York.
A similar measure was offered Wednesday by seven Democrats in the House, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Maurice Hinchey.
The bills come as Congress debates a sweeping overhaul of financial regulation more than a year since a severe banking and capital markets crisis that rocked economies worldwide.
The House Friday approved a regulatory reform bill that would empower a new systemic risk regulator to order the break-up of risky financial firms in extreme circumstances.
Neither the House reform bill, nor its companion legislation being debated now in the Senate Banking Committee, would reinstate Glass-Steagall.
But House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday at his weekly news conference that such a move was "certainly under discussion ... As someone who voted to repeal Glass-Steagall, maybe that was a mistake."
The 1933 Glass-Steagall laws were adopted at the same time that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was set up. Both reforms came in the Great Depression when thousands of banks collapsed, wiping out the savings of millions of Americans.
Glass-Steagall was largely repealed in 1999 during the Clinton administration amid lobbying pressure from bankers.
Today, supporters of stronger regulation of Wall Street and the banks say it is no coincidence that America has suffered a series of financial crises since deregulators gained the upper hand politically in Washington in the 1980s.
"The repeal of Glass-Steagall has exposed the U.S. economy to a level of risk that is simply unacceptable," Hinchey said "Congress ignored history in 1999 when it repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and the American people have been forced to pay the price while bailing out these mega-banks, which should have never existed in the first place," he said.
URL: http://www.cnbc.com//id/34451021/
Financial giants such as Goldman Sachs could be broken up under two bills introduced in the U.S. Congress Wednesday, one with the backing of former Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Both would reinstate the 1930s-era Glass-Steagall laws that barred large banks from affiliating with securities firms and being active in the insurance business. Those limits were largely repealed in 1999, a high-water mark for deregulation.
"It is time to put a stop to the taxpayer financed excesses of Wall Street ... This country would be better served if we limit the activities of these financial institutions," McCain said in a statement with Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell.
Passage of the Cantwell-McCain bill would force firms at the center of last year's financial crisis—such as Goldman , Morgan Stanley , Citigroup , JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo —to spin off investment and insurance operations, said Democrats, a progressive think tank in New York.
A similar measure was offered Wednesday by seven Democrats in the House, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Maurice Hinchey.
The bills come as Congress debates a sweeping overhaul of financial regulation more than a year since a severe banking and capital markets crisis that rocked economies worldwide.
The House Friday approved a regulatory reform bill that would empower a new systemic risk regulator to order the break-up of risky financial firms in extreme circumstances.
Neither the House reform bill, nor its companion legislation being debated now in the Senate Banking Committee, would reinstate Glass-Steagall.
But House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday at his weekly news conference that such a move was "certainly under discussion ... As someone who voted to repeal Glass-Steagall, maybe that was a mistake."
The 1933 Glass-Steagall laws were adopted at the same time that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was set up. Both reforms came in the Great Depression when thousands of banks collapsed, wiping out the savings of millions of Americans.
Glass-Steagall was largely repealed in 1999 during the Clinton administration amid lobbying pressure from bankers.
Today, supporters of stronger regulation of Wall Street and the banks say it is no coincidence that America has suffered a series of financial crises since deregulators gained the upper hand politically in Washington in the 1980s.
"The repeal of Glass-Steagall has exposed the U.S. economy to a level of risk that is simply unacceptable," Hinchey said "Congress ignored history in 1999 when it repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and the American people have been forced to pay the price while bailing out these mega-banks, which should have never existed in the first place," he said.
URL: http://www.cnbc.com//id/34451021/