PRESS RELEASE

Louder Drumbeat for Glass-Steagall
in London and U.S.A.

Jan. 7, 2013 (EIRNS)—Another top-level political figure in Great Britain, conservative member of the House of Lords, Howard Flight, has come forward to call for "a full Glass-Steagall separation" of banks in the City of London. Flight, a City of London insider who got his start with the Rothschilds in 1970 and was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2001-2004, penned an article entitled "We need to contemplate much more radical reform of the City," which was published Jan. 6 on http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2013/01/lord-flight.html

Flight's argument echoes that made previously by the Financial Times back in July 2012, when that institution made its famous editorial call for total banking separation. Since then, numerous other leading political figures, most of them Conservative, have declared themselves for such a measure. However, the top Conservative Party leadership running the government—Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne—remain adamantly opposed to the measure.

The British support is clearly echoed in financial circles in the United States, where Forbes magazine again called for reinstituting Glass-Steagall in an article published January 4, which strongly criticized the behavior of JPMorgan Chase. The article took off from the coverup of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, to conclude:

"The Madoff case is yet another argument for bringing back Glass-Steagall protections passed during the 1930s, but scrapped in 1999 during a catastrophic deregulation of the industry.

"Why are banks still permitted to conduct risky trades while holding tight to the government's doctrine of too-big-to-fail? At the very least, their trading/investment operations should be separate entities from their federally insured deposits and loan businesses. Under that scenario, the traditional banking units would've stayed clear of phony hedge funds operators like Madoff."

Such literary support will soon be put to the test, as legislation for reinstituting Glass-Steagall has already been introduced into the 113th Congress (H.R. 129). The supporters of reinstating Glass-Steagall in the 112th Congress were primarily Democrats; should such strong support from the more Republican-leaning banking community galvanize Republican support, this most urgent element of legislation could move rapidly through Congress, including the Senate.