Pass Glass-Steagall Now!
[Print version of this editorial]
Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed a nationwide call of LaRouche PAC activists on Jan. 29. Her remarks have been edited.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche: First of all, hello to everybody. I think everybody knows that with the election of Donald Trump, the world has completely changed. German Foreign Minister Steinmeier put a fine point on it, saying that the Trump election means the end of the entire order of the 20th Century.
It is very clear that the United States now has a choice: One is to continue with the “special relationship” with Great Britain, which was the basis for the unipolar world for the last 25 years, more or less, with a few exceptions of the Clinton years. And it is clear that the British would like to continue that, which is why Theresa May was the first foreign head of government to come and try to re-establish that special relationship, which would be very, very bad.
On the other side there is the clear perspective that the United States could enter the strategic alliance with Russia—and possibly China and India—which would create the basis to really move world politics into a completely new paradigm of collaboration of major nations to solve urgent problems like the economic crisis, the terrorism problem, and many other such problems.
Now, it is extremely clear from the first week of Trump’s being in office, that he intends to follow through on all of his election promises. From my standpoint it is very important that—given the fact that the problems are so manifold—that people not get freaked out about this action and that action, but really concentrate on the two absolutely most crucial questions without which nothing else can be solved.
The first very, very crucial question is that Trump promised that he would improve the relationship with Russia, and that, for the sake of world peace, is the most important issue. Because if Hillary Clinton had carried out her policies in Syria, with the no-fly zones and the whole provocation against Russia in particular, we would have been on a short road to World War III.
So therefore, the fact that Donald Trump spoke yesterday with five world leaders—among them, President Putin of Russia, and that they apparently established a very good rapport—is of the highest strategic importance. If you look at what the White House and the Kremlin issued afterwards, this is really important, because “Trump asked to convey his wishes of happiness and prosperity to the Russian people, saying that the American people had warm feelings towards Russia and its citizens.” http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/ 53787
This is very, very important, and I think we should really understand that if the United States and Russia can fix their relations, then every other problem can potentially be tackled.
Obviously, the second most important issue is that Trump had also promised in the election campaign to reintroduce Glass-Steagall, because everybody knows that the world is still in absolute danger of a repetition of the crash of 2008, which this time would be much, much worse than even the collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG in September 2008—for the very simple reason that the banks which are too big to fail have grown by 40% or even more, the derivatives have grown, and all the so-called instruments of the central banks have been used up, including quantitative easing, including the whole question of interventions such as bank bail-outs and helicopter money, all of which are in discussion.
As a result, the danger of the collapse of the banking system is an absolute threat hanging over the whole world.
Now, it is very clear that Wall Street obviously does not want Glass-Steagall, because it would, to say the minimum, diminish their power greatly—but it is an absolute precondition for fixing the situation. And Mr. LaRouche has not only talked about Glass-Steagall, but he has defined, on a scientific basis, the four basic laws which are absolutely crucial to be implemented to get the world out of this crisis, which are:
• Glass-Steagall, exactly as Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented it in 1933;
• A national bank in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton
• A credit system
• And then a crash program for high-technology fusion power and international space cooperation, as the absolutely necessary way to increase the productivity of the labor force which has collapsed.
Consider, in addition, that the life expectancy in the United States has gone down for the first time—this is the clearest indicator an economy has collapsed—that the life expectancy of the population is going down.
This is the purpose of this call, because unfortunately the designated Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, in a hearing with Maria Cantwell in the Senate, said he is not for Glass-Steagall in the form of FDR—this he said is a very old law—but he wants to have a “21st century” law because otherwise the markets would not have sufficient liquidity. That argument is wrong, because if you go to a National Bank in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton, and a credit system in the tradition of the American System of economy, that is exactly the system which will provide credit for productive investment.
Therefore, his argument is not relevant, and that appointment could be the Achilles’ heel of the Trump Administration if it’s not corrected, because I think everybody has seen there is tremendous turmoil. There is a deployment by the very same British Empire which is trying to pin Trump down on the special relationship with Great Britain, but that does not prevent them from deploying Soros and the principle of “color revolution,”—the same thing which was deployed against Ukraine in 2004 with the Orange Revolution, or Georgia, or the Arab Spring—using essentially the same means of color revolution for regime change, this time against Trump.
So therefore, this is not a peaceful time; this is not a time when you can wait it out, but I think the fact that Trump has shown that he wants to carry out his election promises, is, indeed, very promising. But I think we need the kind of mobilization to make sure that this absolutely crucial flank of Glass-Steagall is not missed, because that could be the one thing which would really ruin the whole potential.
And let me just end with that. I think people in the United States have to be aware that the whole world looks at this Trump election with great hope—not the old laissez faire neo-liberals and the people who believe in confrontation with Russia and China—but a lot of people, in India, in Europe, are looking at the potential of the Trump Administration with great expectation and hope. This is a unique historical chance, so a lot depends on making it succeed.
The potential is there, with China’s New Silk Road, which already is a new system of financial and economic cooperation on a “win-win” basis, in which over 70 nations are cooperating; the offer to the United States to have a Silk Road exactly fits with Trump’s promise to invest $1 trillion into an infrastructure program in the United States and, therefore, launch a recovery. But it does require the original Glass-Steagall.
So I want to end it here, because this is really the gist of the situation, and I think we need all of you to really help and intervene.
Lyndon LaRouche: I emphasize this.
