PRESS RELEASE
Senator Peterlini Presents
Glass-Steagall Bill in Italy
Feb. 9, 2012 (EIRNS)—Italian Sen. Oskar Peterlini has presented a draft bill for the re-introduction in Italy of a banking separation system following Franklin Roosevelt's 1933 Glass-Steagall model, with the stated goal of both helping the Italian economy immediately and serving as an example for the rest of the world.
Peterlini's bill, No. 3112 in the Italian Senate, has 11 co-signers so far, from both his group, which includes various small parties in Italy's autonomous regions, and also from other major parties, such as
- the Democratic Party (PD),
- the Northern League (Lega Nord), and
- Italy of Values (Italia dei Valori).
Of these only the Lega Nord consistently opposes the current technocratic government led by market darling Mario Monti.
Peterlini has a long history of introducing resolutions calling for serious reform of the global financial system, with campaigns for a New Bretton Woods starting in the early 2000s and a resolution on Glass-Steagall in 2010. The introduction of a bill is an important step forward, which will jump-start a public campaign in favor of the proposal, and comes at a time when the issue of saving the productive economy from financial speculation is taking center stage in Italy, due to both the ongoing financial crisis and the recent interventions of former Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti.
The bill, which was written in concert with Movisol, the LaRouche movement in Italy, is short and simple, calling for the complete separation of banks that accept deposits from those that participate in the financial markets in any manner.
